The Aftermath
by theclaysquid
Summary: After the events of The Entity, Bella begins experiencing worsening health issues as new and old threats surface endangering her attempts at a normal life. Full summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

_This story is a sequel to my previous story the Entity. I absolutely recommend that you read that first but here is a quick synopsis in case you haven't read it and don't intend on reading it- SPOILERS._

 _The Entity was a crossover between Twilight and Beyond: Two Souls, there is a synopsis of Beyond in my last story. For her entire life Bella has been tethered to an Entity that she calls Aiden whom we later learned is her twin brother who was stillborn. Bella and Aiden have abilities which she inherited from her parents who have both passed away._

 _Bella grew up being raised by a government agency called the DPA (Department of Paranormal Activity), and later was forced to work for the CIA as a soldier. She was tricked into killing an innocent man and that caused her to threaten to run away if they didn't let her leave for a while. She moved to Forks Washington after this where a mixture of Twilight and Beyond plot happened._

 _The Entity ended with high ranking men in the CIA/DPA poisoning Bella attempting to put her into a coma but she was saved by Edward. It also ended with the DPA being devastated by escaped souls and entities, many people were killed and there was massive structural damage to the facility. The same thing that caused all this damage also separated Aiden and Bella, which also separated their abilities._

 _The story starts back up again two months later in the beginning of September with Bella dealing with the effects of the poison as well as learning just what she can do without Aiden._

Chapter 1

'Emmett, give it back!' I yelled from Edward's bedroom having just noticed my phone was missing after tearing his room apart. I knew immediately it was him. Stealing stuff from me and forcing me to attempt to retrieve it telekinetically was his new favourite thing. Unfortunately for me, I was pretty lousy at it.

'Make me!' I heard him yell from downstairs followed by his booming laugh. To my disappointment; Aiden was off enjoying his freedom somewhere, I could call him but I didn't want to become the girl who cried wolf. With him I could get it back no problem; without him- not so much. While we were separated we were still connected-able to combine our energy, I tried not to ask him for help unless I really needed it.

He had been tethered to me for so long; unable to make any choices for himself- I was glad to see him off on his own going where he wants to. Even though he could go wherever he wanted, he was still loathe getting too far away from me and could be at my side within minutes because of how fast he was able to travel. I let him be, I figured I needed to learn to fight my own battles now.

The one time Aiden was sure to be near was whenever Jasper was around. Jasper was the newest to the Cullen's diet and had the most trouble with it. Because of this Aiden went with the better safe than sorry mentality and hung around. For today though everyone except for Emmett and Alice was out hunting, and this was the predicament I found myself in. Everyone in the family was entirely supportive of me learning to hone my abilities that were so much more difficult without Aiden.

Aside from Aiden, another problem that continued to plague me was the side effects from what happened two months ago- both physically and emotionally. One of the only people in my life (and really, one of only two humans) that I have ever trusted betrayed me in the biggest way possible. He first tried to help to put me in a coma, and when that failed he shot me in the chest trying to murder me. Aiden subsequently turned his gun on him and killed him.

This didn't do much for my trust issues. But more than that were the physical effects, whatever I had been injected with had done some damage to my body and it was taking a long time to recover. Everything tired me out, whether physical or mental activity; this included practicing my telekinesis. I could tell that this weakness was preventing me from progressing with my abilities as well. The bullet wound in my chest was also healing but I was pretty sure that my healing had been slowed as well.

Emmett's new hobby wore on Edward who worried about how tired using my abilities made me. Emmett argued that it wouldn't get easier unless I practiced; because of this he usually waited for Edward to leave before trying again. Although it was irritating (as Emmett often was) I couldn't help but agree- the only way it would become easier is if I practiced and with this in mind I sighed and made my way down the stairs.

I reached the bottom and saw Emmett standing by the back door with my cellphone in his hand and a smug smile on his face.

' _Please_ can I have it back?' I asked sweetly.

'Not a chance.' He laughed as he walked outside into the balmy 80 degree weather. I sighed again but followed him outside. I heard a small noise and turned around; Alice had followed me out the door.

'You aren't going to help?' my eyes pleaded.

She smiled, supressing a laugh 'not yet' she said- I grumbled. I walked into their backyard until I was 10 feet from Emmett and I stopped, facing him. He held my phone out on his open palm, smiling.

'C'mon Bells, you can do it.' He said, smiling.

'You know I can't! I haven't managed it yet.' I whined.

'But you were _so_ close last time!' he tried to encourage me, but I disagreed. The last time we tried this I had gotten frustrated and launched the book he stole at his face. Quick, powerful bursts I could do- usually pushing something away from me. It was the slow, controlled movements that I had all the difficulty with, maintaining my telekinesis for any amount of time was much more difficult.

I blew out all of my breath and gave myself a little shake to loosen up before focusing all of my energy on the cellphone he held in his outstretched hand. For a few seconds nothing happened, I just focused on channeling everything I had into this small object nothing happened for a long moment. Much to my amazement it rose about 6 inches into the air after about 30 seconds. My surprise broke my concentration and the phone fell back into his hand, bouncing a little bit.

'You have to try again!' Emmett exclaimed 'That was amazing!' I could feel myself starting to tire a little bit but at the same time I felt rejuvenated; I closed my eyes for a brief moment to gather myself. I opened them and honed in on the phone once more. Once again nothing happened for the first few seconds until it stuttered and then lifted into the air.

I could tell Alice and Emmett were holding their breath as I began to slowly pull the phone towards me through the air. It dipped a few times but I managed to lift it back up until it was about three feet from me and it dropped- I lunged forward and managed to grab it before it hit the grass. I wasn't so lucky though, between the exhaustion and loss of balance from diving for my phone, I over corrected myself and fell backwards onto my butt.

I couldn't have cared less, I lay back on my back and held my phone up in the air- almost elated that I had done it as Emmett and Alice cheered my accomplishment.

'You did it kid!' Emmett yelled as he pulled me up off the ground and into a bear hug.

'Can't- breathe.' I managed to gasp out as he crushed me against himself, and he quickly loosened his grip as Alice pulled me into a much more delicate hug before she held me out in front of her at arm's reach and studied me.

'Let's get her inside before she passes out on us.' Alice said to Emmett as she spun me around and forced me to start walking back inside.

'Alice, I'm fine.' I said as I stumbled.

'Sure you are Bella.' Alice responded and pulled me up into her arms walking me into the living room and depositing me onto the couch.

'Jesus, Alice. That was a BIT unnecessary.' I grumbled as she walked out of the room, she came back in with a blanket and draped it over me.

'Don't be stubborn Bella; you know how much using your abilities drains you and you've never done as much as you just did before. Plus, Edward is probably going to kill me for not stopping Emmett. Don't give him more reason by not resting afterwards.' She crossed her arms over her chest; there was no way I was going to win this.

'Fine.' I relented, settling in. If I was being honest with myself I _was_ exhausted- much more than I was willing to admit. Smug with victory, she walked over to the loveseat and sit down turning on the TV.

'Anything you want to watch?' she asked me.

'Nah, I'm good with whatever.' I said, too tired to care. I laid back on the couch and tried to watch whatever sitcom she had switched to, but I very quickly drifted off to sleep.

oOo

When I woke up it was dark out, it was movement that had jostled me awake and I mumbled 'Mmm?'

'Sorry to wake you love, go back to sleep.' I knew that voice- I smiled and opened my eyes to see that we were in his bed together. I readjusted myself so my head was on his cool chest.

'How long have I been asleep?' I asked as he rubbed my back.

'Apparently 9 hours.' He sounded slightly angry.

'Sorry…' I said.

' _You_ don't need to apologize, my obnoxious siblings do. I assumed I could trust Alice but I guess I can't trust any of them.' He glowered.

'Don't be mad at them, they're just trying to help me.'

'Except that you clearly aren't ready.' He tightened his arm around me; he didn't mean it negatively, just stating the facts.

'Yeah I'll agree with that.' I said with a yawn.

'Sleep Bella, you need to rest.' Edward pulled the blanket up around my shoulders and I readjusted myself to what I thought was a more comfortable position until pain shot through me and I winced.

Edward held me tight and stopped me from moving 'Chest?' he asked quietly.

'Mmhmm.' I groaned.

'Ok, here we go.' He said as he very gently turned me so that I was lying on my back. I couldn't wait until I was healed; I was tired of not being able to hold him like I used to, instead being forced to sleep on my back most nights where it hurt the least. 'Better?' he asked me.

'Not really.' I sighed, annoyance obvious in my voice. He propped himself up on his left elbow to look at me.

'I know, it will heal love, you just have to give it time. It was a bad wound.' He said sadly. He still blamed himself for not stopping it from happening when we were in the condenser. We were so easily split up in there and you could barely see anything in front of you. It wasn't even remotely his fault but of course he wouldn't listen to me.

I grumbled something unintelligible and he chuckled 'Sleep Bella, I'll see you in the morning.'

'Night.' I sighed and fell asleep almost immediately.

 _This chapter is shorter than most will be, just a little intro. I have most of this story written already so please favourite, follow and review and I'll keep uploading!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks to bloodredeclipse for the review to my first chapter and to those of you who followed and favourited! Here's the much longer second chapter._

I woke up the next morning to the smells of breakfast cooking from downstairs. Edward felt me stir in his arms and began rubbing my arm gently. I quickly coughed before saying 'Good morning.' With a hoarse voice and smiled at him.

'Good morning.' He smiled back before kissing me on the forehead. 'Alice saw you'd be waking up soon and is making you breakfast, she feels guilty about yesterday… as she should.'

'Oh Edward, be nice. She didn't mean any harm.' I said to him sitting up in the bed.

'I expect that crap from Emmett, not from her.' He was obviously still pissed.

'Drop it Edward, it's not worth the fight. I'm fine- no harm done.'

'Bella, you slept for almost 20 hours straight. That doesn't sound like someone who is fine to me.'

That took me aback 'Seriously?' he nodded as I did the quick mental math. 'Wow, guess I needed the sleep.'

'You wouldn't have if-'

'That's enough.' I cut him off. 'I'm fine; we're fine-it's over. Let's just enjoy the day.' It was a beautiful sunny day out.

He sighed 'You're right, I'm sorry. I'll get over it.' I put my right hand down on the bed so that I could lean over and kiss him. I soon as I put weight on my arm the same familiar pain shot through my chest and my arm gave way. Mercifully Edward caught me before I could jar it more.

'Ugh!' I yelled as I stood up and clutched my arm to my chest and started pacing the room, I just wanted to kick something I was so frustrated with myself. Frustrated that this wound wouldn't heal, the pain wouldn't go away.

'Hey!' Edward stood up and pulled me into a gentle hug. 'It's going to be ok.' He held me for a long moment before pushing me away from him and holding me at arm's length and lowering his head to look in my eyes. 'This- Bella, this is something we can deal with. You're alive, and safe here with us, this pain will go away, I promise.'

I shook my head annoyed at myself 'I know I'm just annoyed with it, with myself. I should have healed more by now- it's taking forever.'

'You don't know what that poison they pumped into you did to you. We're lucky the effects weren't worse than they are. Let's just be patient, plus, I'm always here to help.' He smiled as he leaned in and kissed me and then pulled me into a long embrace.

'We make quite the couple, don't we?' Edward said into my hair.

'What do you mean?' I wasn't sure in what way he was referring.

'We're both full of teen angst today.' He said and we both laughed. 'But,' he said, pulling away again, 'one of us is officially going to be an adult soon, I think that means that you will have to cut down on the angst. Me on the other hand, I'll have to pump it up to make up for it.' He laughed and I pushed at him with my left hand.

'How do you know that?' I half yelled at him, unreasonably angry. He backed up until he was sitting in a chair across the room from me, a smug smile on his face.

'You had to know we would figure it out.' He said with a laugh.

I picked up a pillow and threw it at him angrily, 'You looked through my stuff!'

He caught the pillow deftly, laughed again, shook his head and said 'Not me.' I glared at him for a second mulling it over before yelling 'Alice!' and turning to leave the room. Edward followed me out.

'What happened to 'forgive her' and 'she didn't mean any harm'' He laughed again.

'She went too far.' I fumed.

oOo

In the kitchen Alice backed against a counter with her hands up facing me as I approached angrily.

'Don't be mad, Bella! You wouldn't tell me and I needed to know!' she pleaded.

'No you didn't! That was my choice not to tell you!' I was so angry, and even worse I knew I was being irrational. I could sense Aiden coming near, he could feel my anger. _I'm fine._ I thought at him.

'Oh, c'mon Bella, be fair.' She gave me her patented puppy dog eyes. 'We haven't been able to celebrate a birthday in so long! And you've had such a rough time lately you could use a party!'

Trying to guilt me with the 'human' thing. Ugh. 'Alice, the absolute last thing that I need is a party; I don't have anything to celebrate.'

'That's the farthest thing from the truth, Bella! You're alive, you're here with us and not catatonic or still under the thumb of the CIA. Also, after you're 18 you don't have to fake the whole emancipated thing anymore!'

'None of that _matters_ Alice…' I said gripping the counter with both of my hands. Edward walked in and I could see that something had sunk in.

'She will officially be year older than me.' He said sadly, leaning against the counter I was gripping. I hung my head without saying anything.

' _That's_ what all the fuss is about?' she started to smile before Edward shot her a look. 'You realize he's almost a hundred years older than you, right?'

I sighed and turned around, leaning against the counter beside Edward, he put his arm around me. 'Not physically, his body stopped aging at 17. One year might not make a huge difference but what about 5? 10? The differences between us are already so great and they will get bigger every day.'

'You don't see yourself very clearly.' Edward said rolling his eyes. Before any of us could respond Carlisle and Esme walked in.

'Morning kids.' Carlisle said smiling. 'How are you feeling today, Bella?'

'I'm fine.' I said sulking, feeling betrayed. I walked over to their unnecessarily large table that no one but me used and sat down.

'She's been having a lot of pain in her chest.' The traitor said from the kitchen, I was feeling very ganged up on this morning.

'Bella?' Carlisle asked.

'It's fine Carlisle, no different than usual.' I responded.

'It still isn't any better?' he gave me the same concerned look he always did when we talked about what happened.

'It might be but I'm not sure.' I said trying to assuage his fears and get all of the attention off of me.

'After breakfast I would really like to have a look at it again, if that's ok with you?'

I groaned 'Is that necessary?'

'Two minutes, I promise.' He laughed, I sighed.

oOo

After I ate Alice's (delicious, although I didn't let her know it) breakfast I met Carlisle in his study and I had Aiden sound proof it- last thing I needed was my overly concerned boyfriend becoming more concerned.

'Have a seat Bella; I swear this will just take a minute.' He smiled, I smiled back.

I pulled my shirt down far enough for the bullet wound to be visible. Still remarkably not very healed; in fact we had just stopped dressing it two weeks before, the skin took almost two months to heal back over.

'Well it hasn't reopened, that's progress I guess, and there is no sign of infection either. But if it's taking this long to heal the outside I'm sure it's taking just as long to heal on the inside as well, hence the pain. I honestly can't give you a time frame but based off of how you have been healing I would estimate probably another couple of weeks if not months.' He said sadly.

'It's ok; I figured that it might be something like that.' I sighed, it still sucked to hear.

'Otherwise, how are you feeling?' he sat back down behind his desk. 'I can tell you're still fighting a fever, low grade but enough to add to your fatigue.'

I nodded 'Yeah it comes and goes; it's not usually enough to notice though.'

'Muscle aches? I know that you're fatigued, and using your abilities isn't helping. We were starting to think you'd never wake up there for a bit.' He chastised me lightly.

I laughed 'Blame your kids for that. But yeah, all of the above.'

'Anything else?' he asked.

I thought for a moment, 'I've been developing a cough the last few days but I don't think it's related, probably just getting a cold. I can't imagine that my immune system is in the best shape.'

Carlisle nodded thoughtfully 'Let me know if it gets any worse, you're probably right though. I honestly have no clue if this stuff it still working its way out of your system or if your body was damaged and just needs time to heal. Nothing shows up in your blood work so there's no way to know. We _do_ know that your body is healing, albeit slowly- but it is healing.'

'That's something at least.' I admonished as I stood up. 'Thanks Carlisle, I appreciate it.'

'Bella,' he said as I turned to leave 'anything changes, please tell me. Even the smallest concern I want to hear about it, ok?' his eyes burned with concern, was he not telling me something?

I looked at him for a long moment. 'Of course, Carlisle.'

oOo

'Guess what's happening tonight?!' Emmett's voice boomed through the house, I was sitting on the piano bench next to Edward as he played.

'We'll have a calm relaxing night where nothing happens?' I muttered under my breath sarcastically.

'Nice try Bella!' he barked out a laugh and stuck his head in the room before simply saying 'Baseball' and running out before I could voice my displeasure.

The last time I had gone to watch one of their baseball games it was impressive to say the least but there was a slight problem. The only time they are able to play baseball is when there is a thunderstorm in order to mask the sound of ball hitting bat. They hit so hard that the cracking sound it created could be heard for miles- hence the need for thunder.

Unfortunately though, this meant me standing outside in the pouring rain under an umbrella (that really didn't do much) until I got cold and wet and sat in the car until they were finished. I wasn't keen on repeating the experience even though it _was_ fun to watch the Cullen's completely let go of their human facades.

As much as I wanted to whine and groan I didn't want to guilt Edward out of something he enjoyed so I sat silently as he continued to play. He looked at my face and laughed- clearly I wasn't a good actor.

'I offered multiple times to leave last time, you know.' He smiled at me, still playing the piano.

'I know, I'm not complaining. I'm not going to be the one that stops you from doing what you want. You already sacrifice enough for me.'

'Sacrifice?' he looked confused. He stopped playing the piano and turned to look at me. 'Bella you know that I'm not sacrificing anything to be with you right?'

'Mmhm.' I mumbled 'Taking care of the human has to be so much fun.'

'After all this time you still don't see yourself very clearly.' He held the side of my face in his hand gazing intently into my eyes. 'You have to know by now that I would rather be with you than anywhere else in the world. You aren't some burden- and also,' he said suddenly, pulled out of his train of thought ' 'Taking care of the human'? Since when did you need taking care of?' He laughed lightly.

'Apparently since I moved here, I'm blaming you for making me a damsel in distress.' I said with faux anger.

'CIA operative a damsel in distress? Never.'

' _Ex_ -CIA, I can be whatever I want now.' We both laughed.

'Don't worry.' He said as he started to play again 'The storm is going to hit above Forks but not in the clearing- you'll stay dry.' He paused for a second in thought. 'A cold front will be coming through though, make sure you wear a sweater.'

'Good to know.' I said as I rose to leave, he caught my arm.

'Where are you going?' he asked.

' _Home._ I do still have a house Edward; I should probably go to it every now and then. I'm going to hear from the town soon if I don't take care of my lawn.' I explained.

He flashed me his dazzling smile. 'It's being taken care of.'

I sighed, exasperated 'Of course it is. Still- I have things to do; I'll head here before we leave tonight.' He stood and took my hands in his.

'Want me to come with?' He asked, concern in his face.

'Edward. I'll be ok; your family is going to think you don't like them anymore if you continue to spend all your time with me.' At that he laughed.

'I've spent the last hundred years with them; they can do without me for a while.'

'Still, I need time to be human. That is very difficult in a house full of perfect immortals.' I smiled at him. 'I'll see you tonight.'

oOo

Truth be told I plain wasn't feeling well and as much as I could I tried to hide it from Edward. He worried so much about me and if he was a human I'm sure he would physically worry himself sick. I loved spending time with him but pretending to be ok all of the time was exhausting. The worst part was feeling so weak in a house of people that are all so _strong_ , strong in every way.

I arrived home and somehow managed to make it up into my bedroom before I collapsed on my bed. I had about 7 hours before I had to meet the Cullen's. I had a pounding headache, and my fever felt much worse than usual, body aches, chills and just overall exhaustion. I forced myself to get out of bed to grab some Tylenol that I downed with some water from the tap.

The Tylenol stayed down for about ten seconds before I had to lunge for the toilet, the contents of my stomach rapidly making a reappearance. Almost immediately Edward was at my side, rubbing circles on my back. After a few moments the dry heaving stopped and I tried to speak before devolving into a coughing fit.

'Just breathe Bella.' He said gently, continuing to rub my bad soothingly.

'I'm ok…' I gasped out taking deep breaths. 'Why did you come?' I finally managed to ask.

'Alice saw you. Why didn't you tell me you weren't feeling well?' That concerned look was back.

I leaned back into his shoulder, exhausted. 'I'm tired of making you worry, especially over nothing. I think I have the flu, nothing to worry about.' I felt him stiffen. 'It's not the same Edward,' I said delicately, knowing he was thinking of his own demise 'I just need to keep some Tylenol down.'

He gently shifted me so that my back was leaning against the wall; he got up, grabbed the pill bottle and the glass of water and brought it back to me.

'Think you can keep it down?' he asked.

'Let's find out.' I took two pills from him, popped them in my mouth and then downed some of the water. Edward readjusted me again so that he was behind me. The nausea hit me again but he rubbed my back and whispered gentle words until it passed.

'I'm good, I just want to go to bed.' I said starting to get off of the bathroom floor, Edward helped me to stand.

'Bella… We should get you to Carlisle.' I could see how it tore at him, he died from the flu. I really couldn't blame him for being worried.

'Edward please, I just want to have time to myself. Having everyone know what you're doing or saying at any given time is exhausting.' I pleaded. 'I especially don't want to be sick around them.'

He laughed 'I know what you mean' and helped me get to my bed.

'Plus, we'll be seeing Carlisle tonight anyways. I promise I won't keel over before then.' I said lightly.

He slowly lowered me to the bed 'We aren't going if you still feel sick.'

'I'll be fine; I just need to sleep it off. We've got plenty of time.' I said pulling the covers up around me.

'Just sleep Isabella; we'll see how you feel this afternoon.' He began to hum and I quickly drifted off to sleep.

oOo

I woke up 5 hours later, much to my and Edwards relief I felt about a million times better. Still though we spent the next few hours on the couch watching a movie before I got ready and we headed out to the clearing for the Cullen's baseball game.

As we drove the rain started, huge fat droplets fell until we headed out of town. The rain became lighter and lighter until it was nothing but a light mist when we parked. Edward slung me onto his back and ran us through the wet forest; the trees zipped by, slapping me with their wet leaves. We emerged into the clearance and saw that everyone was already there waiting for us. Literally _everyone_.

'And where have you been?' I said hands on my hips looking up at Aiden who I could feel some slightly guilty thoughts coming from. 'I'm just kidding Aiden; it's good to see you.' I smiled up at him. This new Aiden was so much more pleasant than he used to be, it was so refreshing and I was so happy that he was finally able to live his life- but even happier that he still wanted me in it.

I settled in leaning against a rock as the Cullen's started their game and just as Alice had predicted there was no rain in the clearing. As I watched them play Aiden was excitedly flashing through his recent memories of places he'd been, things he'd seen- he was so childlike I couldn't help but smile.

Turning my attention back to the game I saw that Edward was up to bat, Emmett pitching. Edward hit the ball harder than even the best professional is capable of and it soared hundreds of metres away, clearing the forest. Within seconds the ball was flying back over the forest towards the clearing after being caught and returned by Emmett. Instead of it going back to home base though it headed straight for me.

I knew that I wasn't in any danger, one of the Cullen's would step in and catch it, and in fact I knew Aiden was already bracing to stop it but I waved him away. 'Let me try, Aiden.' He reluctantly waited and watched as I stood up. The ball soared in an arc towards me, I felt the energy building up in me and I let it fly aiming at the baseball.

The ball immediately reversed its trajectory and flew back towards the forest just as Emmett appeared through the tree line.

'What the hell?! Not fair!' he said as he looked up at the ball arcing over him again and he took off after it once again. At the same time Edward ran through home base getting the first homerun of the game, laughing.

Emmett had just emerged from the forest when Alice stiffened, immediately followed by Edward 'Vampires.' They said in unison, in very different tones of voice. I immediately stood up and walked towards Edward as he reached for my hand. Aiden jumped at this immediately and put a shield around me, blocking the sound of my heartbeat and the scent emanating from me, this didn't eliminate my scent that was currently circulating through the clearing though.

Edward and I stood next to each other, hand in hand a few metres behind the farthest back of the Cullen family. Edward had angled us so that I was partially hidden behind his body and the two of us were hidden by the other 6 members of his family.

'How long?' Carlisle asked from the front of the group, tension clear in his voice.

'A minute and a half.' Alice said with certainty.

'How many?' Carlisle asked again.

'Three, they were passing through when they heard the noise, they're curious.' Alice said tensely. She looked over at Edward and me 'I'm sorry Edward.' She said looking at him sympathetically.

'Not your fault.' He said tensely as he gripped my hand tighter in anxiety.

'Why don't you leave?' Emmett asked.

'I can hear them now. One is a _tracker._ ' He spit out the word as if it were poisonous, everyone there accepted what he said without comment so I guess there really was no use in running.

 _If you like the story please review and favourite, it helps me out a lot, any feedback is greatly appreciated!_


	3. Chapter 3

_Thanks to Lionnara and bloodredeclipse for the reviews! And thanks everyone for the follows and favourites, you make me want to keep writing!_

Within no time three vampires glided into the opening, a dark skinned male in the front and a redheaded female with wild hair along with a blonde haired man followed behind. The man in the front looked totally at ease while the male following him was the exact opposite. His gaze darted from person to person in the clearing, eyes wild while the female kept glancing at the blonde haired male as if waiting to see what he was going to do.

This small group stopped about 100 feet away from us, the male in the front stepped forward and Carlisle did the same.

'Hello there,' the male vampire greeted Carlisle with a slight French accent 'we heard you playing and we were curious.'

I could hear the smile in Carlisle's voice 'You're very welcome, we could use a few more players. Why don't you join in?'

'What is that _smell_?' the male in the back hissed cutting off the pleasantries, his eyes kept returning to me.

Carlisle answered immediately 'Some humans came through before we got here and I'd appreciate it if you didn't hunt while you were here. My family and I take up permanent residence here and we would like to keep it that way.'

'Of course.' The lead vampire smiled 'We wouldn't want to disturb the peace here. I must say I'm intrigued, I've never hear of such a large coven living together in one place for a prolonged period.'

'I would be more than willing to explain, but first, we play.' Carlisle smiled. Edward led me away back towards the boulder I was previously leaning against as everyone cautiously started walking back out to the makeshift baseball diamond.

'Why isn't she playing?' The wild eyed man looked directly at me and I crossed my arms over my chest doing my best to look defiant.

Carlisle answered for me thankfully 'She isn't quite as trusting as I am, no one has to play. If Bella and Edward feel like joining in they are more than welcome.' He looked at Edward meaningfully and Edward put his arm around me.

The nine vampires split off into two teams of the tensest game of baseball I had ever witnessed. After a few minutes of them playing Edward leaned over until his lips touched my left ear and he whispered so quietly I could barely hear him.

'Carlisle says to wait an inning and then you and I will slowly leave, they will notice but hopefully it won't arouse their suspicion anymore. As long as they don't get too close they won't notice the colour of your eyes. We're hoping they're dark enough to look like a hungry vampire, but if they get within 50 feet of you Aiden will push them away. They will just think that one of us is gifted.' I just nodded.

'You're doing great Bella, just be careful with your movements. Whatever you do, don't fall.' He said with a fraction of humour trying to lighten the mood. I just glared; I wasn't even risking my voice giving away my humanity.

We watched them play for about 15 minutes, Edward with his arm around me holding me tight but not too tight being careful of my chest. Emmett was up to bat with the three newcomers and Carlisle playing the bases and umpire Emmett hit the ball pitched by Carlisle and the redheaded female ran after the speeding projectile.

After less than a second the ball came hurtling back and the blond male ran to catch it, in the process running much too close for comfort towards us. Edward stiffened 'Do it.' he whispered and Aiden and I channelled our combined energy into this vampire hurtling him twenty feet from where he had stood moments before.

He flew through the air before deftly landing back on his feet and turning to snarl at us, Edward mirrored his stance and I tried to look angry. His leader ran in front to stand between us one arm stretched towards Edward, one towards his acquaintance.

'Please, we meant you no harm, let us continue the game. _James._ ' He said pointedly at the blonde who had come to close for comfort. James stood up from his crouch and slowly backed away, Edward waited a few beats before doing the same.

'Let's go.' I said with a clear voice that didn't betray the fear I was feeling. I reached for Edward's hand as everyone watched us go we slowly walked off into the forest. Once we got about a hundred feet past the tree line Edward picked me up and ran me to my house not stopping for his car.

'Pack some clothes; we're going to go away for a few days until we know what they plan on doing. They know _something_ is different about you but they aren't sure exactly what it is.' He said as he deposited me on my doorstep.

I unlocked the door and made my way upstairs to my bedroom two stairs at a time. 'Where are we going? What about school?' I asked him as he followed behind me, school was set to start in a few days.

'I'm not sure yet, I need to check weather forecasts and Carlisle will call the school for us, don't worry about it.' He said as he pulled my laptop onto his lap furiously typing. 'Dress warm.' He said thinking for a moment; I began throwing all of my long sleeve shirts and pants in my suitcase along with socks, underwear and toiletries. I had thrown everything into the suitcase by the time Edward spoke.

'Northern Ontario, we fly in to Timmins Ontario early tomorrow morning and it's an hour and a half drive to a cottage my family owns, it will be cloudy for at least the next week. I emailed Cole and told him not to worry if you don't email him for a few days.'

'Canada? You think we need to go that far?' I asked.

'I'm not taking any chances. Are you ready to go?' I nodded. 'Unfortunately we have to take your truck, we can't risk going by my house right now.' He looked disgusted and I laughed.

'It'll make it, don't worry.' I assured him on our way back downstairs.

'Not only might it _not_ make it, even the slowest vampire could catch this thing when it's going its fastest.' He said opening the passenger door for me.

I mulled it over 'That's fair, but they'd have to find us first and they certainly aren't finding us by our scent at least. Aiden and I have that covered.' He threw my suitcase into the bed of the truck and climbed in, the truck roaring to life as he turned the key in the ignition.

'That's something at least.' He said in a tone I recognized, he was brooding over something. I let him stew on it as we drove in silence to Seattle, as far as I could tell no one followed.

oOo

We arrived at the airport at quarter to midnight and boarded the plane shortly thereafter, once we boarded and were safely in our seats I broke the silence.

'What's going on up there?' I smiled at him and motioned towards his head.

'Nothing, I just want to get you away from here.' He said smiling tightly.

'Liar.' I smiled again. 'You're beating yourself up over something, what's the matter?'

He took my hand in his 'Why do you have to be so observant?' I just waited for him to continue. 'I should be protecting you not causing you more danger; we are literally fleeing the country right now because of the danger I put you in.'

'Edward please, we both know that you didn't do anything wrong- and anyways this is just a precaution. For all we know your family has convinced them not to follow us.'

He started to say something but I cut him off '-my entire life has been running Edward, this is nothing new to me.'

'That doesn't make me feel any better Bella; I never wanted this to happen again, let alone because of me.' He said sadly. I knew there was no point arguing with him anymore, he was too stubborn- I took his hand.

'Edward, it will be ok, I promise. I trust you, I trust your family and I trust Aiden. No one will be able to get to me, ok? Also- don't discount me.' I gave him a wry smile. 'I can take care of myself too you know.'

He took my hand 'I know you can Bella, but you don't know my kind as well as I do, especially trackers. The hunt is their life, once they set their mind on it they don't stop until they have caught their prey.'

'There is no sense in worrying until we hear from Carlisle, so this whole discussion is moot anyway.' I said trying to end the conversation; I was starting to fall asleep.

He sighed 'You're right, of course.' He looked at me and smiled sadly 'Sleep Bella, I'll wake you when the plane lands.' And he leaned my head against his shoulder, the coolness of his skin was relaxing and I drifted almost immediately.

oOo

I jolted awake suddenly to find myself seated on the plane, Edward hurriedly murmuring to me. I looked around confusedly to see some luggage on the floor and people exclaiming.

I turned to Edward and whispered 'Was that me?'

He nodded 'Are you ok?' he looked concerned.

'Yeah must've been a bad dream I guess, I'm not sure what happened.' I tried to brush it off, he looked worried. 'How far are we?' I asked changing the subject as someone put the last bit of fallen luggage into the overheard bins.

'We'll be starting the final descent in a few minutes.' He said looking across me out the window.

'I slept for the entire plane ride, sorry. I'm not the best company lately I guess.' It was true, all I seemed to do these days was sleep, I was even boring myself.

'Don't be silly, you needed the sleep.' He leaned over and kissed me.

About twenty minutes later the passengers were allowed to exit the plane. We got up into the aisle and waited behind the rest of the passengers slowly making their way to the door of the plane. As we waited a man tried to shove his way past Edward and I, pushing his body weight into my back on my right side.

Pain shot through my body causing me to curl over on myself, holding my chest. I looked over where the man was and Edward had grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt giving him the scariest look I had ever seen. Everyone in the vicinity was frozen, watching this happen.

'Edward!' I hissed 'I'm fine.'

'You hurt her.' He said quietly, murderously.

'I-I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…' The man sounded terrified.

'Edward!' I said louder this time. 'Let him go, I just want to get out of here.' This seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he was in. He let the man go and he all but ran away from us, Edward turned to me.

'Are you ok?' He asked, eyes burning, hands gripping my arms.

I nodded gripping my chest 'I just want to get off of this plane.' Luckily, everyone else was of the same mind after Edward's outburst- he really could be scary; we got off the plane quite quickly after that.

We got into the airport and Edward had me sit while he called to check the ETA of the rental car he had ordered. It was once I was sitting that the coughing fit I had been suppressing since being hit on the plane came out. Edward came over to me and rubbed my back until it passed, chest heaving, lungs burning. I leaned against him until the pain passed and he finished his phone conversation.

'They'll be here in a few minutes, are you ok to go?' he asked.

I nodded 'I'm good, what about you. Are you ok?'

'Sorry about on the plane, I have no excuse for what I did and stress isn't a good enough excuse.' He wouldn't look me in the eye so I reached up and pulled his face down towards me.

'You were worried, it's ok. Let's just get out of here and make the best of our time here, ok?'

He leaned down and kissed me 'You're right,' he smiled and reached his arm down towards me to help me up 'let's get out of here.' I reached up with my left hand; my right arm was still pressed to my chest and let him pull me up.

oOo

We got to the cottage just before 6am that morning and I was dead on my feet. Other than the 3.5 hours of sleep I got on the plane here I hadn't slept at all that night. I stumbled my way into the cabin and Edward guided me to the bed where I collapsed and he took my shoes off and put me under the blankets which I barely even remembered.

I woke alone in a strange room filled with muted light from the one window and sprang up into sitting, heart pounding. Edward appeared in the doorway almost instantly 'Are you alright, love?'

I blew out the breath I was holding 'Yeah, sorry. I forgot where I was for a second.' I pushed myself up in bed better and my chest twinged.

'Are you in pain?' he asked sitting on the bed at my feet.

'No, I'm good. What time is it?' I asked leaning against the headboard.

'Almost noon, and before you say it you barely slept at all last night, you needed it.' I laughed, he knew me too well.

'I've become a narcoleptic apparently, I'm surprised you haven't dumped me yet.' I said, mostly joking.

'It isn't your fault that you're sleeping so much, and me breaking up with you will never happen. You're stuck with me until you decide you don't want me anymore.' He told me.

I gave a sarcastic laugh 'Don't hold your breath for that.' I swung my legs over the side of the bed and got up and started to rifle through my suitcase pulling out an outfit for the day. I went into the bathroom, closed the door and started changing.

'Any news on the tracker and his friends?' I asked through the door.

'Yes actually, the trackers name is James, the woman is Victoria and the other man is Laurent. I guess after we left Alice ran home and aired out our house which was lucky because they accepted the invitation to come over and as far as Carlisle could tell they didn't smell you. Apparently they're still in town waiting to 'apologize' but Carlisle is trying to persuade them that we won't be back until after they've left.' He explained.

'What explanation did they give for me throwing James away from us?' I asked as I left the bathroom struggling to brush my hair with my right arm, pain pulling in my chest. Edward gestured for me to come and sit back on the bed; he took the brush from me and brushed my hair for me.

'That you're a gifted vampire. I think that for the most part they believe it but James is incredibly observant and he isn't completely sold. James is actually the leader of the three of them, he had Laurent feign leadership so that he could just stay back and observe. Alice is keeping an eye out for his future moves to make sure he doesn't get near you.'

'Is there any risk of danger to them?' The last thing I wanted was for ant of his family members to get hurt over me.

'No, silly Bella.' He said as he gently brushed my hair 'They're being very amicable I've heard, the only danger here is to you.'

'Good.' I breathed a sigh of relief. Edward stopped brushing and I turned to look at him.

'That's literally the opposite of good Bella.' He said seriously.

'I'm used to being in danger,' I waved away his concern 'but I'm not used to having people I care about, and I'm especially not used to putting people I care about in danger.' I tried to explain.

He looked at me sadly 'You aren't putting anyone in danger Bella, it's the exact opposite. You spending time around vampires is dangerous.'

'I can handle myself; also, you're by far the best bodyguard ever.' At that he chuckled and finished brushing my hair.

'Are you hungry? I had some food delivered but I haven't cooked in about a hundred years, I'm pretty useless.' He said.

'Yeah, I could eat.' I stood up and followed him to the kitchen.

The cottage we were in was beautiful but not nearly extravagant enough to scream Cullen. It had 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom and living room and was well furnished with beautiful wooden walls and flooring- I could tell Esme had a part in the decorations.

I went to the fridge and threw some eggs in a pan with a couple of vegetables from the fridge to make a sloppy omelet. When it was done I sat at the table to eat it and Edward eyed it suspiciously.

'Is that any good?' he asked skeptically.

I laughed 'No, not really. I never really learned how to cook.'

Edward thought about this for a minute 'So growing up, you were taught to fight and kill but not to cook or take care of yourself.'

I nodded 'It sounds ridiculous but you don't need to know how to cook when you've got MRE's.'

'What about your childhood? You were raised in a home for a while weren't you?' he looked at me intently.

'Yes, but my foster parents weren't exactly doting. They lived in fear of the entities that plagued me as a kid before Aiden was able to keep them away. I don't blame them for how they raised me or that they gave me up at such a young age, it is what it is.'

'Did you ever celebrate holidays? Christmas, Halloween, Easter?' he asked.

'Oh geeze,' I thought, racking my brain 'maybe when I was younger. Not that I can remember though.'

'That's really sad.' He said, eyes reflecting what he said.

I shrugged 'I never knew any different.' I continued eating and he was silent for a few minutes, lost in thought.

'You're right about us making the most of our time here, I'm going to teach you how to be a human.' He said suddenly, very excited.

I laughed 'And how will the vampire teach the human to be human?'

'I was human once,' he said feigning being offended 'and I'm pretty sure you never were, so I have more experience in the matter.'

I laughed again which turned into coughing 'I really can't argue with that.'

 _Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!_


	4. Chapter 4

_Thanks again to bloodredeclipse and Lionnara for the reviews! PLEASE favourite, follow and review!_

Over the next two weeks Edward took it upon himself to do 'human' things with me, and I must admit- it was a whole lot of fun. In fact this by far the best two weeks of my life, _fun_ has never been a necessity in my life and I found it very difficult at first, I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Edward almost had to show me how to have fun, especially to relax. Northern Ontario really was beautiful; the cottage we were in was about a half an hour from the nearest town nestled against Sesekinika Lake spotted with many islands.

Here Edward took me fishing in a small motorboat, kayaking, hiking and swimming on the occasional warm day. He was disgusted to learn that I had never been bowling before which was apparently a sin in his eyes. We went into the small town nearby and did just that, we also found a stable on the edge of town and went horseback riding which Aiden loved.

This was one of the few days that Aiden hung around and I had to keep yelling at him to stop possessing the poor horses, they started to get really freaked out. We also saw all kinds of wildlife in our time here, loons, moose, bears, deer- I immediately took to this place. I've never loved somewhere so much in my life.

About a week into our stay here we got the all clear that the small coven had been gone from town for a few days and Alice foresaw no immediate danger from them, they were already a few states away. With no school and really no other obligations we decided to stay longer, my plan was to stay past my birthday so that I wouldn't have to deal with one of Alice's parties.

At around 9:30pm on August 12th Edward loaded us into the car and we took off for some unknown destination.

'C'mon Edward you know I hate surprises.' I whined from the passenger seat.

He smirked 'Most humans like surprises; I thought we were learning how to be human.'

I grumbled 'I definitely don't like it, but I will _try_ to tolerate it.'

'That's my girl.' He laughed at my enthusiasm and took my hand.

We drove for about 2 hours before we arrived at a provincial park, it was about 11:30 when we arrived.

'They can't still be open?' I asked, it was way too late at night.

Edward gave me a mischievous smile 'They aren't, we're breaking in.'

'I thought we were being normal humans, normal humans don't break and enter.' I said.

'I wouldn't want to shock your system with _too_ much normality.' He said matter-of-factly.

'Ah, naturally.' I nodded sagely.

He pulled the car to the side of the road and we got out. The cool air caused me to have a coughing fit- cold air seemed to do it every time. Edward waited, rubbing my back until it stopped.

'Are you okay?' he asked and I nodded. 'We have to get your chest looked at.' He said as he gently threw me over his back and grabbed a bag out of the trunk of the car.

'It's ok, it's just a cold. It's starting to get better anyways.' I lied, if anything it felt as though it was getting worse. Lately the coughing had increased and my lungs felt heavy and a little painful, at least though the old wound in my chest was finally starting to feel a little bit better, the flare ups of pain were much less often and less extreme.

'Uh huh.' He said as he took off running, clearly not convinced.

He stopped in the middle of a clearing surrounded by trees, or at least that's what it looked like. It was absolutely pitch black; I could barely see a thing. Edward pulled a blanket out of the bag he carried and laid it out on the grass. He sat down and opened another blanket across his body and motioned for me to sit between his legs.

I sat down and leaned against his chest and he wrapped the blanket around my body to keep me warm against the chilly air and his body. 'Look up.' He said as I leaned back into him, and I gazed upward into the sky.

What I saw amazed me, the Milky Way stretched out across the sky above us, something I had never seen before because of light pollution. The expanse of lights and stars was so much more than I ever would have expected.

'This is unbelievable.' I half whispered in awe.

'Give it a few minutes, it will get better.' Edward said hugging me to him.

'How?!' I asked, and he just chuckled. We sat in silence watching the occasional shooting star and the slow blinking of faraway satellites. Suddenly the sky was alight with colours, brilliant green, yellows and the occasional purple streaking their way across the sky. The colours ebbed and flowed, disappearing before reappearing brighter than ever.

All I could think to say was 'Wow…' as Edward pulled me tighter.

'Happy Birthday.' he said quietly into my hair.

We sat and watched in awe for the next hour completely transfixed by the earth's natural light show until it faded away just as quickly as it had come.

'Thank you Edward, that was by far the best birthday gift I have ever been given.' I said softly, turning my body so I faced him, he held my hands.

'And here I thought you would put up a fuss over being given a gift at all.' He joked; my eyes had adjusted to the low light and were able to see his face by the glow of the Milky Way.

'You know me too well; you chose the perfect kind of gift for me.' I said seriously. 'Edward this time here has been the best of my entire life and I'm forever indebted to you. I was barely living before I met you; you've changed everything for me.' At that he chuckled a little bit to which I cocked my head and waited for him to explain.

'Bella, don't you see you're describing your impact on my life. In the entire time I've been alive I've never cared for anyone as much as I care for you. My life was meaningless before I met you.' At this I rolled my eyes. He grabbed my forearms and I looked into his eyes 'I'm serious Bella. When I met you it was like waking up from a deep sleep. I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone.'

I looked at him for a few moments 'I feel the same way, you have taught me to live and to love more in the last almost year than in my entire life. I don't know what I would have done without you.' We kissed and he hugged me to him. We sat like this for some time before I started to shiver in the rapidly freezing night air.

'Let's head back, shall we?' he asked.

'I'm sorry.' I said, I didn't want to cut the moment short.

'Oh please, it's late and cold. Last thing we need is for your cold to get worse.' We stood up and folded the blankets, shoving them back into the bag he had brought. I climbed back onto his back and we dashed out to the car.

Edward put the heat on full blast. As the car warmed up and became very comfortable I drifted off to sleep.

oOo

I woke the next morning in my bed in the cabin with Edward next to me.

'Good morning.' He said as I stirred.

'Morning.' I smiled at him.

'Happy birthday.' He smiled back.

I groaned and threw my arm over my eyes, 'My birthday ended last night, no more mention of it is allowed.'

He laughed at this 'That's not how it works Bella; you have the whole day left. And don't think Alice isn't waiting to throw a party at you when you get home. Just because we aren't home on the actual day doesn't mean it stops existing.'

I groaned again and threw the blanket over my head, which Edward pulled back down with ease. 'Why are you so against birthdays?'

'I'm not against _birthdays_ , I'm just against mine.' I said to him.

'Why is that?' he looked puzzled.

I paused for a moment before answering 'It's not exactly the best day in the world. It's the day that Aiden died and the day that my mother was put into a coma, never to wake again because of me. It seems horrible to celebrate it.'

'Does Aiden feel that way?' he asked.

I paused again and said '…no.'

'I'm sure your mother wouldn't want you to feel that way either, although I do see where you're coming from. I won't force you to celebrate it… but I can't say the same for Alice. She's a monster if she doesn't get her way. Besides- it's more a party for her anyways, just see it that way.'

We spent my birthday enjoying our last day at the cottage, if we waited anymore before going home Alice was going to make my party so much worse for me- it was best that we just go and get it over with. It was a balmy 77 degree day and we spent it swimming and fishing from the dock- purely catch and release, I found that I really enjoyed it.

In fact I learned a lot about myself these last few weeks and I had Edward to thank for that. With a fake ID that I had from the CIA and one that Edward had from god knows where, he had taken me to a casino. Out of all the things we had done I liked this least- the blank seemingly soulless expressions on people's faces as they gambled were super depressing. We didn't last there very long.

I found out that I liked anything to do with sports, I loved bowling and the batting cages the most. Turns out baseball was actually fun, I had dragged my feet when Edward said what we were doing. I now understood the Cullen's love of the sport and was slightly less resentful. The only irritating problem was whenever I exerted myself I would erupt into a coughing fit and would have to sit until it passed and although it happened less, exerting myself caused the pain in my chest to return every now and then.

Edward was trying but failing to convince me to go to the doctor for the cough but I was having none of it. The absolute last thing that I wanted was to go back to the hospital; I had spent far too much time in hospitals lately.

We were leaving at 5am the next morning to go to the airport so by 8pm we had curled up on the couch and put on a movie I quickly passed out and Edward had to carry me to the bed. Edward woke me up at 4:30am knowing that I need very little time to get ready and I crawled out of bed barely awake. A really nice thing about having a boyfriend that doesn't sleep is that I woke up to everything packed and ready to go.

I quickly got dressed and we regrettably left the cottage, as we walked out the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees in the last 8 hours. Thankfully Edward had thought to leave my coat out of my bag because I had not checked the weather the night before.

I dozed off on the ride to the airport and sleep walked through the airport but by the time we boarded I was much more awake and Edward and I played some card games and watched a movie until we landed at quarter to 11. We got my truck out of the airport parking and drove the hour back to Forks.

As we drove into town the previously sunny sky turned ominous and black, heralding the rain that was clearly imminent.

'Even the world knows that this party is a bad idea.' I grumbled at him.

'Good thing the party is indoors.' He laughed.

He dropped me off at home with my truck and ran to his house; we both had things to do before the party tonight. I immediately went upstairs and started my laundry, after two weeks I had gone through most of my wardrobe in the time we had been away.

Being back in Forks I found that I had missed my little home and of course the lawn was perfectly tended even though I hadn't been here in weeks. I walked around wiping off the dust that had settled on things while the house sat vacant.

I decided then to take a shower and get myself cleaned up for the party tonight, after I got out of the shower I wrapped a towel around myself and ended up falling asleep on my bed shortly after. I woke up about two hours later.

'Damnit Aiden, you should have woke me up. I only have 2 hours till I have to leave.' I would be going to the Cullen's house tonight so Aiden was close. I quickly got dressed into a dress and went to the bathroom to do my hair, blow drying and straightening it. About a half an hour before I was to leave I picked up my guitar.

While I was growing up one of the only forms of entertainment I had was playing the guitar. It brought about a sense of calm and I played for about 20 minutes before I heard a creak and looked up.

Edward stood in the doorway to my bedroom 'I've never heard you play before.' He said quietly 'It's beautiful.'

I shook my head and put the guitar down 'Far from it, I'm out of practice.'

He darted over quicker than I could see and handed the guitar back to me 'Please don't stop, I could listen to you all day.'

'I thought we had a party to get to?' I smirked.

'Screw the party.' He sat down next to me and tried to pass me the guitar again.

'No' I laughed standing up, I took the guitar from him and put it on its stand 'let's get it over with; I don't want to deal with Alice when she's on the warpath.'

'Alice…' he grumbled and I pulled him up off my bed. 'Let's just get it over with.'

He pulled back on my hand and stopped me from walking; I turned to look at him. 'Play for me later?' he asked.

'If I survive the night maybe…'

oOo

Once we arrived at his house the beginnings of a storm was moving in, there was a large drop in temperature and you could feel the electricity in the air and feel the strong winds as it moved into town- I shivered.

'C'mon, let's get you into the house.' He said wrapping an arm around me.

Once we crossed the threshold into his home we were hit with a chorus of 'Happy Birthday' and I cringed, this kind of attention made me extremely uncomfortable. Edward could feel this and pulled me closer to him laughing. It was so much worse than I could have imagined.

Every available surface was covered in pink candles and crystal bowls filled with hundreds of roses. There was a large table set up near Edward's grand piano that was draped with a silver table cloth. On the table sat a beautiful cake with a stack of ornate plates and silverware and a small pile of wrapped presents.

As the song ended Carlisle came and hugged me.

'Happy Birthday Bella, I'm sorry we couldn't reign Alice in.' he whispered to me. Esme came next pulling me into a maternal hug that I had never truly experienced before I met her.

'We've missed you!' she said to me as she pulled away.

'I missed you guys too!' I smiled at her and turned to look at Alice. 'Alice, you ARE aware that I'm the only one that eats, right?' I said, eyeing the cake.

'So you'll have leftovers.' She said dismissively. 'Come! Open your presents!' she said beckoning me over to the table and reluctantly I followed with Edward holding on to my waist.

'I hope you guys didn't spend a lot… I really don't need anything.' I said to them.

Alice just rolled her eyes and tossed me a square box that was so light it felt empty. 'This is from Emmett and Rosalie.' I noticed that Rosalie was nowhere to be seen but Emmett watched from a few feet away leaning against the wall.

I opened the box to reveal a long serial number and the picture of some kind of electronic box; I opened it to reveal that it indeed was empty. 'Thank you?' I said to him and he laughed.

'It's a car stereo.' Edward laughed 'Rose is currently installing it so that you can't return it.'

'Thank you Emmett, it's unnecessary, but very nice. Thanks Rosalie!' I yelled louder so that she could hear me from outside.

'Here, this one is from Jasper and I.' she said handing me another square box, this time handing it to me much more carefully- this present was not empty. I opened it to reveal a DSLR camera.

'Jesus Alice, so much for not spending a lot of money on me.' I said strained.

'It's your senior year of high school! You have to take pictures to remember it.' She said unapologetically. I just sighed, no point in being ungrateful.

'Thank you Alice, Jasper. That is really thoughtful.' I said with a small smile.

'You're welcome!' she said happily. 'Here, this one is from Esme and Carlisle she said as she handed me an envelope. I slid my finger under the sealed fold and drew it across ripping the paper- I felt a small sharp pain in my finger and as soon as I realized what had happened I clamped my hand shut hoping to cover the scent of blood before it hit the room- of course I wasn't successful.

 _Thanks again for reading but I know that there are more than two people reading this story! If you're enjoying it PLEASE review, you're doing me a huge favour!_


	5. Chapter 5

_Thanks again to bloodredeclipse and Lionnara for the reviews and thats for the follows and favourites!_

There was a lot of movement all at once, I had just noticed Jasper move towards me, eyes deranged, he looked nothing like his usual self. Before I could react I felt something solid throw me backwards into the table, landing on the pile of plates and I felt the shattered ceramic slice into my arm as I reached out to stop my fall.

It was then that I panicked, old reflexes kicking in as I was aware that the blood pumping out of my arm could be enough to incite any of these vampires to kill me. Aiden and I blasted everyone within a ten foot radius away from me and I got up and bolted outside into the freezing rain. I didn't stop to see what happened behind me. As I ran, Aiden held a shield around me that blocked any sound that I made and blocked my scent from leaving any kind of trail.

I held my arm close against my body preventing blood from falling on the ground which would make Aiden's force field useless. Using mine and Aiden's telekinetic abilities, as I ran we lengthened my strides to 5 times what a normal human would be capable of doing.

With my added speed I was almost as fast as a vampire, I ran for about 15 minutes before the loss of blood started to get to me, the pain was also kicking in. I finally stopped running and stood under a tree in the middle of the forest, the only sound was the occasional clap of thunder and the pounding rain. I looked down at my arm and in the dark all I could see was that from my elbow to the tips of my fingers was completely covered in blood, there was no skin visible.

I ripped a strip off of the bottom of my dress and tied it as tightly as I could above my elbow with my left hand and teeth. It was then that I realized that instinctually I had been running home, completely devoid of energy I took off at a slow walk towards my house. I came to a road and realized that I was actually pretty close- much closer than I would have been at a human speed.

Aiden was still keeping a large radius shield around me, through him I saw that some of the Cullen's had come close to the barrier calling my name but none had discovered it or me yet. I knew that I should probably let them find me but I was still scared to let them near me while I was covered in blood. My plan was to get home get myself cleaned up and let them near.

After another ten minutes I could barely walk anymore and I was pretty sure that I had been turned around from the dark and the blood loss. I was literally freezing and I had lost too much blood- I decided to take a break and sat down with my back against a tree. Aiden was starting to panic a little bit now; I was too tired to feel fear at all.

oOo

EPOV

In all my life I had never felt such suffocating fear, Bella was hurt because of me and my family. She was out in the pouring rain and we couldn't find her. I didn't _understand_ how we couldn't find her, it was as if she left the house and entered another dimension, we couldn't even find her scent.

'Aiden must be shielding her.' Carlisle said as we reconvened in the forest under the pouring rain.

'What if the nomads came back and took her?' I asked having just had the terrifying thought.

'They didn't.' Alice had just run up dripping with rain. 'None of them are anywhere close by, we will find her. She's in the forest somewhere I just can't tell where- I think she's going to her house. We need to expand our search radius, she's moving much faster than humans are able to, although she's slowing down…'

'Fuck.' I said as I took off at a run, with Carlisle and Alice following.

'Where is Jasper?' I heard Carlisle ask Alice from behind me.

'Rosalie is with him, making sure he doesn't get too far until I can get back to him- after we find Bella.' She said.

We ran for about 10 minutes with no sign of her, we had split up- Alice going left, Carlisle right. I was starting to think that there was no way she had made it this far out when I smelled a single drop of blood about 30 feet ahead of me.

'Carlisle! Alice!' I called to them so that they could help me locate her, as we tracked her the blood drops were closer together and more concentrated until we hit an invisible barrier and were brought to a sudden stop. It had to be Aiden holding a force field around her and if it was here, unmoving… that means so was Bella.

'Aiden!' I yelled, I couldn't hear his consciousness, or really anything coming from past this invisible wall, I couldn't see anything either except the forest.

'Aiden please, let us help her!' I shouted. 'Run around the sides, see if you can see her inside.' I said to Alice and Carlisle.

I banged on the field with my hands, ran at it, nothing could even make it budge. 'Aiden please… I'm sorry, you know I wouldn't hurt her on purpose… just let me help.' I begged.

Alice and Carlisle had come running back on the opposite sides they took off from 'Nothing.' Carlisle said shaking his head.

'Aiden.' Alice called out. 'Jasper isn't here, he's far away. She's safe with us I promise. If we don't get her out of this rain soon and deal with her wound she won't last long. Please… let us help her.'

We waited a few more moments, my hands resting against the invisible shield when suddenly it vanished and had I been human I would have stumbled forward. As soon as the shield dropped the smell of her blood hit me hard. Too much blood.

Carlisle stopped Alice and I from running forward 'Can you two handle it?' we both nodded. 'Get her, bring her to her house and I'm going to run back home and get my medical bag. Alice, will she make it until then?'

She thought for a second 'Yes, she'll be fine.' And with that he took off for home and we took off for Bella. We made it to her in seconds, she was slumped against a tree soaking wet, covered in blood from her right elbow down. Her dress was saturated from both blood and water and the bottom hem had been torn off to make a makeshift tourniquet above her elbow.

'I'm sorry Aiden.' I could feel his anger radiating off of him. 'I'll make this right, I swear.'

I crouched down in front of Bella, she was still conscious somehow. 'Bella, can you hear me?' I lifted up her face with my hand.

'I'm s-s-sorry.' She chattered out, touching her skin, I couldn't feel a difference between our body temperatures. 'We have to get her out of here, she's freezing.' I said to Alice. I carefully picked her up in my arms and ran with her the rest of the way to her house. I couldn't believe how close she had come; it only took us 20 seconds of sprinting before we got to her door.

We brought her upstairs and laid her down on her bed. 'We have to get her out of her clothes, she'll freeze.' I said, full of panic as she lost consciousness.

'I can do it Edward, just step out for a second.' Alice said to me as she pulled a pair of Bella's sweatpants and a t-shirt from her drawer. I hesitated, not wanting to leave her like this. 'Two minutes Edward, I promise, she'll be ok.'

I nodded, kissed Bella's forehead and walked out of the room.

BPOV

I came back to consciousness as I was jostled around, that mixed with the pain and how cold I was, I panicked and threw whoever it was backwards followed by an _oomph_ of air being pushed out of someone's lungs as they collided with something hard.

'Alice! Are you okay?' I heard what I thought was Edwards muffled voice ask.

'I'm good.' I heard Alice say from across the room. 'Bella?' she asked carefully.

'Alice?' I finally opened my eyes. 'A-Alice… I'm s-so s-sorry…' I said through chattering teeth, my voice was much weaker than I wished it was.

'It's ok Bella, let's get you into warmer clothes, ok?' she asked cautiously holding up what looked like my clothes, it was then that I realized we were in my bedroom at home. All I could manage was a nod.

I really wasn't much help as she pulled the soaked dress off of me, I couldn't even manage to hold my eyes open as she dried me off with a towel and slipped the new dry clothes over me. I realized then that she had wrapped a towel around my arm- it must still be bleeding I thought which seemed ridiculous to me. How do I have any blood left?

Alice laid me back on the bed as she wrapped a towel around my hair and started piling blankets on me. I heard someone enter the room and set up what I knew by the noise it made was my space heater, I could feel the heat almost immediately yet still I was shivering so hard I felt that I would never be warm.

'Bella? Carlisle is here, he's going to take care of you, ok?' Edwards nervous voice said.

'M-m-m-' I stuttered out as I devolved into a coughing fit that didn't seem to want to end. I felt strong hands pull me up into a sitting position and a hand rubbed my back.

'That's it Bella, breathe, c'mon you can do it.' I heard Carlisle's voice say. Eventually my breathing relaxed and I was laid back down and covered up again except for my arms. I felt a slight sting in the back of my left hand and I managed to open my eyes enough to see Carlisle put an I.V. in my hand.

He saw me looking, 'It's a simple saline drip and some morphine, you're dangerously low on fluids, we need to get you rehydrated.' I just nodded as the shivers were starting to abate and closed my eyes again.

I must have drifted off because I woke to the feeling of a gentle pulling on my right arm which I assumed was Carlisle stitching up the gashes in it. The warmth of the heater and my blankets along with the feeling of the morphine caused me to drift off to sleep.

I woke up slowly, my ears worked for a long while before I could even manage to open my eyes or move a muscle so I did the only thing I could, I listened.

'What are we going to do Carlisle?' I heard Edward's tortured voice ask.

'I'm not sure… but if anything, this proves that you have much less to fear than you thought.' Carlisle answered.

'What? How?' Edward sounded confused.

'If Bella wasn't injured, and if she didn't want us to find her we may never have. Also, did you see the house? She's so immensely powerful. She's amazing; I've never seen anything like her in my life.' Carlisle explained and I heard Edward sigh and then go silent for a few minutes.

'Where's Jasper?' Edward asked eventually.

'Alice met up with him; he hates himself for what he did. He's a wreck Edward.'

Edward sighed 'I know- I can't trust him anymore though. He's too unpredictable.'

'W's c'reless…' I mumbled.

'Bella?' Edward asked 'What did you say?'

I opened my eyes and looked at the two of them trying to speak louder 'I was careless, not Jaspers fault.' I said proud of myself, it was almost a full sentence.

'Bella… you opened an envelope; that should never have ended in me throwing you across the room to stop my brother from killing you.'

I could feel myself falling asleep again 'Not your fault, not h's either…'

'Bella, stay with us, I need you to stay awake for a little while.' I heard Carlisle say hastily, and I tried to pry my eyes open. 'How are you feeling?' he asked me.

'Tired.' I sighed, Edward rubbed my arm through the blanket, I was still pretty cold.

'How's your pain?' Carlisle asked.

'Don't feel anything right now.' I answered truthfully, the drugs still working through my system.

'Good, you're still dehydrated though. You aren't going to feel the best for the next few days until your body makes some more blood. I'm still going to give you saline for the rest of the day and we'll test your levels tonight to see how you're doing.'

'School?' I asked, we had already missed two weeks' worth of school and I didn't want to miss more.

'Not yet, I've sent the school a doctor's note attesting to the fact that you are recovering from an illness and that you'll be back soon, at the latest next week.' Carlisle explained.

'K.' I said closing my eyes again.

'Not yet Bella, stay awake.' Urged Carlisle.

'Sorry…' I forced myself to wake up again.

'We have to get you to eat something; you need food in your system so your body has the energy to make new blood.'

'M'not hungry.' I protested.

'Bella it's been almost 24 hours since you last ate.' Edward spoke gently.

That can't be right, can it? Forcing myself to sit up with Edward helping me, I tried to think, tried to remember. 'Alice!' I said suddenly 'I threw her into the wall.'

'Shh, she's fine Bella, no harm done… except to your wall.' Edward said glancing over and sure enough there was a two foot tall divot in the wall where Alice's torso and head had been.

'Where is she?' I was definitely starting to wake up now.

'She's with Jasper, they've gone… away.' Carlisle told me.

'Where? For how long?' I could feel my heart rate speeding up.

'It's ok Bella, just until its safe for Jasper to return, don't worry- she'll be back.' Edward had taken my left hand and squeezed it.

'Let's get you downstairs and get some food into you.' Carlisle said and I nodded, pulling back the blankets and attempting to swing my legs around. Carlisle held my left arm up as I tried to put weight on it.

'You have to be careful of the stitches, don't put any weight on your arm until it starts to heal some more.' I looked down and my whole arm was heavily bandaged.

I tried to stand but Edward picked me up 'I can walk Edward.' I protested.

'I don't want you walking until you build up some energy first.' Carlisle explained as he carried my I.V. pole down the stairs after Edward and I. Edward deposited me in one of the chairs at my dining room table and Carlisle brought me a bowl of soup and a glass of water and had me eat.

By the time I finished the bowl I was exhausted again and they brought me over to the couch 'Try and sit up as much as you can today.' Carlisle said 'The more you lay down the weaker you will become. I will be back tonight to check on you and remove the I.V.'

'Thank you so much Carlisle, again.' I said as Edward wrapped a blanket around me.

He just shook his head, 'I promised you safety in my home and I failed, for that I'm sorry. We won't put you in danger again.' He said solemnly.

I could think of nothing to say so I simply nodded and he left out the front door with one more regretful look my way.

Edward locked the door behind him and came back over to me on the couch sitting next to me, putting his arm around my shoulders and pulling me until I leaned on his right side. He switched on the T.V. with the remote controls and threw on some animal documentary which he knew were my favourite.

'What are we going to do with you?' He said into my hair and I chuckled then sighed.

After a lengthy pause I asked a question I had wanted to ask for a long time. 'Have you ever considered changing me?' I asked slowly and Edwards's reaction was immediate- he became still as a statue.

When he spoke his voice was different, hard, cold. ' _No._ '

'Why not?' I asked curious at his reaction, he pulled his arm away and turned to look at me.

'Why are you asking me this? We've never talked about it before.'

'No,' I assented 'We haven't. It didn't seem possible before when Aiden was tethered to me. I didn't know what it might do to him if I were to die. Now that we're separated I don't think that our mortality is linked anymore so I'm no longer worried.

'It would solve a lot of issues Edward such as you having to save me all of the time, and me not being safe around your family. Not to mention the aging issue- I'm already a year older than you Edward and I'm not aging any slower.'

'Bella- this life… It's not something that I would have chosen for myself. I can't condemn you to the same fate.' He looked tortured.

'I don't understand… what fate?' I asked, puzzled.

'I'm not… good, Bella. What Carlisle made me into I will be forever indebted to him- he saved my life. But this… whatever I am, it has robbed me of any kind of soul I may have had. I can't do the same to you.' Edwards's voice was truly agonized; I've never heard him at such a loss for words before.

'That's what it is? You're worried about my _soul_? Edward, even if souls exist I certainly don't possess one. If anything gets rid of a soul I think murder would do it, and I've killed enough people to make dozens of people soulless.'

He shook his head looking devastated 'No Bella, you cannot be condemned for something others made you do.'

'And you can't be condemned for something you were turned into!' I half shouted at him, getting angry at where this conversation had gone to. 'For someone so intelligent this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard you say.'

'It's not the same thing…'

'But how could you possibly know? You don't even know that souls exist!'

At that he gave a humourless chuckle. 'I think the very existence of Aiden proves that souls exist, before I met you I wasn't sure but now I'm certain.'

'What about Aiden?' I said, annoyed 'Aiden has killed many people. Physically he is unchanged, no worse for wear. If you're using him as an example it's a bad one.' I had a thought 'Unless… you don't want to turn me because you don't want to spend the rest of your life with me.' As soon as I said it I felt the hurt, of course it was true, and why wouldn't it be?

'What? Bella look at me.' He pulled my face up to look at his. 'That couldn't be further from the truth, how could you even think that? There's nothing I want for myself more than to be with you forever. But it would be selfish. I won't take your life Bella.'

I just nodded, I was sad and tired and I didn't want to talk about this anymore. 'Bella…' he said quietly. 'I love you so much, please don't be sad. You may not have given this too much thought before but I have… every day. I've thought of every possible solution and every issue that arises from it. I've had nothing but time to think about what to do and I would hate myself forever if I killed you. I can't do it.'

I readjusted myself on the couch trying to lean against him again and pain shot through my arm. I gasped and cradled it to my chest.

Edward sighed 'Why didn't you say you were in pain?' he got up and went to the kitchen returning with some water and two tablets. 'Here, take these.' I obliged wordlessly and he sat next to me and pulled me to him gently. I took his hand and laid it on my wounded arm and sighed at the feeling of his cool skin on my burning flesh.

'Rest Bella, you will feel better when you wake.' I leaned against his cool chest with a blanket wrapped around me and fell asleep almost instantly.


	6. Chapter 6

_Thanks to bloodredeclipse for the review!_

When I woke up the sun was lower in the sky, I guessed it was around 4pm. Edward sensed me waking and he rubbed my arm until I was more conscious 'How do you feel?' he asked cautiously, I guessed this was because he sensed that I was going to start in about him turning me again. I wasn't, I couldn't take any more rejection in one day.

'I'm good.' I said quietly. In all honesty I was feeling kind of sick- my chest was heavy and I felt a little feverish.

'Are you sure? Your temperature has been going up while you slept; I think you're getting a fever.' The worry in his voice was wearing on me, how long would I make him feel this way?

'It's just because of my arm, it will break. It isn't bad.' I said trying to convince him.

'Do you want something to eat?' he asked.

'Not really.' I said, I was anything but hungry.

'Let me rephrase, will you eat?' he smiled at me; my favourite beautiful crooked smile and I couldn't help but smile back.

'Yeah, I'll try.' I sighed.

Excited he got up 'What do you want to eat?'

My stomach turned at the thought of food but I didn't want to worry him so I said 'Just some cereal would be fine.'

He frowned a bit at this but he turned to get it anyway, glad I think that I had agreed to eat at all.

I couldn't even eat a full bowl of cereal, as soon as I started eating I felt nauseous, luckily Edward didn't push me. After he took the bowl away and sat next to me again and pulled me to him. I started thinking about earlier today when Carlisle and Edward were talking.

'What did Carlisle mean earlier when he said 'Did you see the house? Did I do something to the house?' I asked him

'What? No, the house is fine.' Edward lied smoothly.

'Edward, please don't lie. What did I do to the house?' I asked.

'Nothing Bella, I swear.'

'Aiden, can you please go look at the Cullen's house and show me?' I asked.

'Aiden don't!' Edward called after him but he was already long gone.

I sat up, pulling away from him to look him in the eye. 'I thought you said that the house was fine.'

'Bella, please it is fine. It will be fine.' His eyes pleaded with me to let it go.

'It will be, or it is?' he closed his eyes.

'It's not that bad Bella, I promise.'

Aiden got there and within seconds he showed me the state of the first floor of the Cullen's beautiful home. It looked as if a bomb went off- there was shattered glass littering the floor even though I could tell most of it had been cleaned up. The back window was completely shattered where I'm guessing someone was thrown through into the back yard.

The side door was in splinters as were some of their beautiful glass shelves and a wall with a huge hole blown through it. Worse of all was Edwards piano, it was smashed- I had smashed it. It was completely destroyed. I could feel Edward shaking my shoulders lightly and calling my name.

'I'm a monster…' I whispered and curled up on myself. I could hear him speaking but I couldn't listen. 'No wonder you don't want to turn me, I'm a weapon _now_ , what will happen if I turn? Your family, they must hate me now. They have finally seen what I'm capable of… if they were human they'd be dead.'

Edward pulled me against him and rocked me as I cried, he was speaking but my brain wasn't registering what he was saying. I wanted to pull away, get away, stop burdening all these people I cared about with the drama I caused. I needed to stop putting everyone I loved in danger.

Just then Edwards's phone rang and he answered it, I didn't hear what he was saying but it was only about a minute before he put it up to my ear and held it there.

'Bella?' I heard Alice's tinny voice come through the phone.

'Alice?' I asked, shocked by hearing her voice.

'Whatever you're planning Bella, don't even think about it. We will stop you.' She said seriously.

'What? Alice, I'm not…' she cut me off.

'Yes you are. Bella, no one is mad at you, ok? I will be back as soon as I can, until then don't do anything stupid. What you did was necessary to defend yourself, no one is hurt and the house will be fixed in no time.'

'Alice, I don't blame Jasper… please just come home.' I pleaded.

'I know you don't, but we can't have that happen again. We'll be home when he is better in control; none of us are willing to lose you. Bella please, just focus on getting better, we all love you, ok?'

'Ok…' was all I could bring myself to say. Edward pulled the phone away and brought it back to his own ear, spoke to Alice for a few moments and then hung up. He pulled me to him and whispered reassurances that I barely heard. I was ripping his family apart.

Carlisle came by around 8 o'clock and disconnected me from the I.V. which I was very glad of. Also, spurred by either Edward or Alice he reassured me not to worry about the house and that it would be back to normal in no time. I just nodded, not wanting to upset either one anymore.

I was allowed to get up and try and walk after the I.V. was gone and after Carlisle had cleared me to do it. I managed to walk all the way up the stairs with Edwards help and into my bed. I fell asleep almost immediately, the stress of the day wearing on me.

The next morning I woke up and I felt awful, the heaviness in my chest felt like it was strangling me, I couldn't pull in a proper breath.

'I don't know Carlisle, something is off. Her chest sounds… wrong, and she's pulling in shallow breaths'

A pause. 'Yeah, last I checked it was 103.4. Ok. Ok, thanks. See you soon.' And he hung up the phone. I heard him moving around in the bathroom, heard the tap turn on and heard him walk back into the room. I felt something cool touch my forehead and the change in temperature send a shock down my spine making me jump.

'Shh, Bella, it's ok, I'm here.' Edward murmured 'Open your eyes, Bella…'

'I don't feel good.' I said, my eyes still closed.

'I know honey, just open your eyes, I need you to wake up for me, ok?'

'Mmm.' I said as I opened them obligingly.

'Hey.' He said with a smile.

'Hi.' I said trying to smile back.

'Can you tell me what's wrong Bella? What doesn't feel good?' I could tell that he was barely concealing his panic.

'I'm ok.' I assured him 'I think it's just a chest infection, my lungs hurt and this fever doesn't feel great. I'm guessing the rain didn't agree with the cold that I had.'

He sighed 'I think you're right, Carlisle's coming but I think we should take you to the hospital to get your chest looked at.'

I shook my head 'No hospital, I just need some antibiotics. Plus what do you think it's going to look like if the hospital see's my arm? They're going to think that I tried to kill myself and Carlisle fixed me up without reporting it.'

'Not if we explain to them what happened.' He insisted.

'It's likely that they won't believe you and I really don't want to be held on an involuntary hold. I'll be fine with some antibiotics.'

He was clearly torn; he didn't say anything he just paced back and forth waiting for Carlisle.

'Edward, don't tell Alice. She will tell Jasper and he'll blame himself, they'll never come home.' I asked softly. He just shook his head and kept pacing until Carlisle showed up about 3 minutes later.

'Can't catch a break, can you Bella?' Carlisle smiled sympathetically.

'Doesn't seem that way,' I laughed, immediately regretting it as my lungs ached 'it's really not that bad.'

Carlisle pulled out his stethoscope, held it against my back and had me breathe in deeply causing me to have a coughing fit which left me completely breathless. The pain of coughing was terrible; Carlisle rubbed my back until it passed. 'Getting better?' he asked as it began to subside, all I could do was nod.

'Try and take another deep breath for me, ok?' Carlisle asked quietly and I complied this time thankfully with no coughing. He had me repeat the process a few more times as he moved the stethoscope around.

'I'm fairly certain that it is pneumonia although there's no way to be certain unless we perform a chest x-ray. I know you don't want to go to the hospital, I can promise that there's nothing to be afraid of if we go.' I just shook my head and he nodded although he wasn't happy.

'Ok I'm going to treat you for pneumonia for a few days and if it doesn't improve then you're coming to the hospital with me, deal?' Begrudgingly I nodded and he held his hand out for me to shake.

'Ok, I'm starting you on high dose antibiotics three times a day for the next week; I'm going to give you an inhaler to take twice a day for the next month as well.' He had pulled a bottle of pills and an orange inhaler out of his bag.

'Thanks Carlisle.' I sighed 'I'm sorry I'm taking up so much of your time lately.'

'Don't be ridiculous, you keep life interesting if nothing else.' I laughed but Edward did not find it quite as funny- Carlisle ignored him and said 'Call me if anything changes, ok?' he said to Edward and Edward nodded.

Carlisle left and I swung my legs over the side of the bed getting lightheaded as I tried to sit up- Edward was at my side in a second 'Bella, stop. You need to stay in bed.'

'No, I need to get up and move around; sitting still will only make my lungs worse.' I said.

'You're impossible; you're going to be the death of me.' He complained.

'Impossible.' I said as I pulled him down to kiss me.

oOo

Over the next few days I started feeling immensely better, the antibiotics working wonders which put Edward in a much better mood. By Thursday Carlisle had cleared me to finally go back to school which was awesome news, I was so sick of my house at this point and going to the Cullen's wasn't really an option as they finished up repairs.

I wore long sleeves to cover up the wounds in my arm for the first day of school. Luckily Edward had somehow managed to arrange us to have all the same classes which saved me from having to take notes with my injured arm which still hurt to use.

My lungs improved but the cough remained and I had to step out of a few classes until my coughs subsided. Edward continued to worry about me no matter how much I improved which seemed a little bit overboard to me. He always seemed to be watching me and waiting for something to go wrong.

My friends were happy to see us and because Alice was away, and Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie all graduated last year we sat with them at lunch. I listened to them tell me about their summers and the adventures they went on such as cliff jumping and surfing. While they talked Edward seemed to get progressively sadder so I turned and whispered to him.

'What's the matter?' I asked him quietly.

He took a moment before answering. 'These are the kinds of things you should have been doing this summer, not what we were actually doing.'

I looked at him quizzically 'You can't think anything at the DPA was your fault…'

'Some things were, but that's not what I mean.' I rolled my eyes at that but let him finish. 'You should be spending your time as a normal teenager, doing normal teenage things. If the DPA hadn't been destroyed I'd have half a mind to tear it down again.'

I laughed 'We might get another crack at it. Cole says that they have finished cleaning up the debris and have already begun building the new one. By his calculations we'll need to worry again in 6 months- they've hired a lot of construction companies to get it built as quickly as possible.'

He groaned 'Great…' and he stretched his arm around my shoulders. 'That's one government agency down, what about government agency #2?'

'Not sure, Cole never had that much contact with them so we have to depend on Alice's visions and just keep an eye out I guess.' I shrugged.

'Problem with that is that Alice never met any of them, so her visions aren't as clear or reliable as they would if she was watching one of us.' Edward said bitterly.

'That's what makes it fun!' I said ironically.

'Bella?' I heard Angela's voice ask me and my head shot up.

'Hmm?' I had no idea where the conversation had gone to.

'I was asking about your summer, where were you? None of us saw you guys all summer.' She was genuinely curious.

'Oh, um we spent a bit of time in Virginia and then a few weeks in Canada; mostly we hung around here though. We didn't go out too much.' None of that was really a lie, just stretching the truth a bit. 'Then of course I was sick the last few weeks, but I'm feeling much better now.'

'We _heard_ you were sick! I'm glad that you're feeling better now though!'

'Thanks Angela.' I smiled at how genuine she was.

On the weekend I went with Edward to pick up some new shelving and furniture for his house, Edward was planning on going alone but I wanted to do whatever I could to help. I still felt incredibly guilty. Monday was the last day that I was to be on antibiotics which was fine because I felt way better, my cough was almost gone and my lungs felt completely clear.

Though things were settling back to normal there was still a gaping hole in my life, Alice still wouldn't come home. She said that they were making progress with Jasper and they couldn't come home yet. My guilt was enough to drown me.

oOo

Monday evening Edward and I were driving out to his house for the first time since my awful birthday party. We were about halfway there when Edward frantically said 'Call Aiden, have him get here immediately.' As soon as he said it he hit the gas and we went flying down the highway, almost directly followed by blue and red flashing lights coming from behind us.

'Edward, what…' then it dawned on me 'That's not a cop.' It was then that his phone started ringing; he had it to his ear less than a second later.

'Thanks for the warning Alice.' His voice was full of malice.

'Edward!' I chastised him but he ignored me.

'Can we shake them?' a short pause 'Goddamnit!' he yelled. 'Ok, I won't. Are you sure they won't just send reinforcements? Alright, thanks Alice.' He hung up the phone and swerved off the main road onto a side dirt road.

'Should I get rid of them?' I asked not wanting to screw up whatever plan Alice had obviously concocted.

'Not yet, we need to lure them away first.'

'How many?' I asked turning to look behind us.

'I'm not sure yet, a lot.' He said as he sped up and disappeared into the forest turning off his lights, he went about 500 metres before he slammed on the brakes and turned off the car. We waited about 30 seconds before three brand new undercover police cruisers flew by- obviously not Forks PD.

Edward dashed out of the car and ripped off the license plate; he got back in and tossed it on the backseat. We tore down the road that we had come down but he took a different turn.

At this point I had no idea where we were but I knew that we were no longer in town; Aiden had also caught up to us by now and was just as angry as Edward was. We were flying over a hill without headlights when we came upon a bridge that was a beacon of police lights and it was then that we noticed the helicopter circling above.

'Fuck!' Edward yelled as he stomped on the brakes. 'Alice didn't say anything about a roadblock.' I could hear the sirens coming up from behind us and the woods were too dense for the car to fit.

'Do you trust me?' I asked looking at him.

'Of course… what…' he was confused.

'Drive.' I said looking forwards. 'Drive, Edward!' and miraculously he didn't question me, he hit the gas and we raced forward directly into the police barricade.

 _Thanks again for reading, the more reviews I get the sooner I'll post the next chapter!_


	7. Chapter 7

_Thanks to bloodredeclipse and FeatheredKids for the reviews! I hope everyone enjoys the next chapter._

I put my hands on the dashboard and closed my eyes; _Aiden, help us._ A force field exploded out from us encompassing the car and acting as a battering ram.

I could hear gunshots ringing out as we drew closer but nothing touched us as our car smashed through the barricade of people and cars sending some of them careening into the river and others into the forest. We drove about 100 metres before I yelled at Edward to stop the car. Again, shockingly, he did what I asked and slammed on the brakes.

'Drive into the woods, don't be seen. I'll be ok, I promise.' He started to argue but I cut him off 'Don't go far, just out of sight. You can't expose your family, Edward.' He looked tortured, torn before he gave me a curt nod and leaned over to give me a short, intense kiss.

'Get out of here; I'll meet up with you in a little while.' I didn't wait for his response; I dove out of the car and walked towards the accident as Edward drove into the forest to hide himself and the car. 'Don't kill anyone.' I said aloud knowing he'd hear me.

I walked out from under the cover of trees and looked up at the helicopter. _Cullen's._ Aiden thought to me and I looked around, sure enough through the spotlight of the helicopter I could see figures moving silently and almost imperceptibly fast through the woods around me and the soldiers. 'Don't kill them and don't be seen.' I urged knowing they would hear me but I wasn't close enough for any humans to hear.

I turned my attention back up to the helicopter hovering above us and I took a deep breath; Aiden flew up, knocked the pilot unconscious and pulled the helicopter to the ground. We brought it down slow enough that no one inside was seriously injured but as it came down the propellers smashed against the trees obliterating them showering me with dirt and plant material. They weren't taking off again.

I looked back down to the blockade of smashed cars in time to see 4 different soldiers hide behind the bodies of their destroyed vehicles with their guns drawn and trained on me. I put my hand out to my side to stop the Cullen's from interfering when the soldiers all opened fire on me. Bullets ricocheted in all directions as they bounced off of my shield.

I yelled with effort as Aiden and I launched the four of them backwards into the forest, the Cullen's waited just out of sight knocking the conscious ones unconscious. As silence settled over the forest there was one sound, it was the sound of someone crawling across the ground whimpering softly.

I heard a loud bang in the distance and almost immediately felt the wind of a bullet whiz by my face. _Aiden, help._ I thought to him, he had lowered the shield thinking that they were all gone. I heard multiple gunshots after that from seemingly every direction around me, some shots hit the shield and some missed.

'Snipers.' I said, not bothering to move. I wanted to keep their attention on me, I could see the Cullen's zipping around in the distance. I could hear the occasional grunt and then the gunshots in that direction would stop.

I slowly began to walk over to the sniper closest to me, his bullets ricocheting off of my shield. 'Leave him.' I said to both Aiden and the Cullen family. As I approached he panicked, scrambling to his feet trying to get away from me but Aiden and I stopped him where he was. As I reached him I took his gun and hit him across the face with the butt of the rifle, knocking him onto his back.

I leaned down and grabbed him by the top edge of his Kevlar vest. 'Tell them to leave me the fuck alone, because next time, I'll kill _everyone._ ' I released him letting him fall back to the ground and walked away from the carnage back into the forest. I walked in the general direction where I knew Edward's car was hidden using the light from the fires to guide me in the black forest. I got far enough away and deep enough into the forest that Edward ran over, threw me onto his back and took off for his car.

He loaded me into the passenger seat, ran around and sat in the driver side. He took my face in his hands 'Bella, are you ok?'

'I'm fine.' I nodded, 'Get us out of here before reinforcements come back.'

He threw the car into drive and took off. 'Do you think they will come after you when they get here?'

'No, not right away at least. They will know now that coming at me that way won't work, they will have to regroup.' I explained.

'What do you think they want?' I could see how tightly his hands gripped the wheel.

'I'm honestly not sure. Whatever it is, it isn't good.' Right as I said that there was a bang on the car and I screamed involuntarily.

'Shh, it's Emmett.' He said as he took my hand and Emmett opened the door, getting in the moving car.

'Jesus Emmett.' I said clutching my heart.

'Bella that was the coolest thing I have ever seen. You've been holding out on me!' he accused.

'No I haven't, the stuff you and I are doing is just with my abilities. That was Aiden and I together.' I explained 'Are you guys ok? I'm sorry you got dragged into this bullshit again.'

'Are you kidding?' Emmett laughed his booming laugh 'Bella I haven't had this much fun in years.'

I leaned my head back into the seat 'Great, Emmett. I'm glad my shitty life is fun for someone.' Edward stroked the back of my hand with his thumb and Emmett laughed again.

We drove around for another hour twisting through back roads until it was clear that no one was following us and we ended up at the Cullen's house. As we walked in the rest of his family was already there in the living room talking- still no Alice or Jasper. I assumed they wouldn't have come but I had hoped that they would.

'Bella!' Esme said as she ran towards me and pulled me into a hug. 'Are you ok, sweetheart?'

I smiled and nodded 'Yes, I'm alright.' I paused, guilt eating at me. 'I'm sorry, so sorry for bringing this down on your family… again. You could have been exposed tonight and it would have been my fault.'

I looked up at the family and while most of them gave me looks of compassion, there was one exception. Rosalie glared at me with such hatred it almost hurt to look at her, and I really couldn't blame her. I was putting her family in so much danger just by being near them; it was unfair to them all.

Carlisle shook his head and took my hands in his 'Nonsense, Bella. This isn't the first time we've come under scrutiny and it won't be the last, we can deal with it.'

I backed away shaking my head 'Not because of me… I can't be responsible for exposing any of you or causing any of you to get hurt.'

'She's right.' Rosalie finally spoke, voice full of anger 'She's a liability to all of us; she's going to bring the entire government down on our heads.'

'Rose.' Emmett and Carlisle said at the same time.

'No, she's right. I _am_ a liability, the more time I spend here the more dangerous it is for all of you. It's gotten so out of control that you all had to step in to stop a S.W.A.T. team from either capturing or killing me tonight. This is insane, and I can't let you all be dragged into this anymore.' I backed away and pulled my hand from Edwards.

'Bella…' he said quietly, pained.

'I need to leave, they aren't going to stop. Staying here is putting everyone I love in danger.'

'Bella, if they come back, we'll deal with it. You don't need to worry about us; we can take care of ourselves.' Edward pleaded.

'No, Edward! You shouldn't have to!' I shouted angrily. 'I need to leave, they know where I am and one way or another they are going to come back for me.'

'No they won't.' A soft voice said from the door, I turned quickly to see-

'Alice!' she smiled at me.

'They're frightened Bella, they think that everything that happened was you. Because of this they think that you are way more powerful than they thought- which you are. We're stealthier than you think.' She smiled 'They had no idea that there was anyone there tonight but you.'

'That doesn't mean that they won't come after me again.' I countered.

'Actually it does, at least for the foreseeable future anyways.' Alice piped in. 'They assumed that they would have no trouble bringing you in but what you did shocked them; they never suspected that you would have beaten them. They're re-grouping, planning and they have no immediate plans to return. I can see them much clearer now; I will be able to see when they plan on making a move.' Alice explained.

Rosalie sped out of the room, no one followed.

I slowly shook my head 'No…' I whispered 'I can't risk it, it's too dangerous.'

Edward took my face in his hands 'Bella, the only one in danger here is you, and if you think there's any chance that we won't help, you're fooling yourself.'

I walked over to the couch, sat and put my head in my hands. I felt someone sit next to me 'He's right Bella, stop worrying about us, let us help you.' Carlisle said softly.

'They're your family Carlisle; you can't be ok with me putting them in danger.'

'You're right Bella; I'm not ok with my family being in danger.' He took my hand in his 'You are our family now and we won't leave you alone for the CIA to get to. We're here for you Bella, please- let us help.'

I looked up at his words and said 'I don't know what to do Carlisle. I need to think about it, just give me a few days ok?'

He nodded 'Take all the time you need.'

oOo

School over the next week was beyond stressful, every time someone talked to me or made a loud noise I would jump. Edward was my shadow all day; he claimed it was to watch out for the CIA but I knew that it was also to make sure I didn't bolt. One perk to me being a flight risk is that Alice was hanging around too so that if she saw my future change suddenly she'd be there to stop me.

Jasper was apparently staying somewhere close by but out of the reach of humans so that he wouldn't be a danger to anyone. At the end of everyday Alice would head back to where Jasper was hiding out and continue to help him learn to control himself. I guess that they were exposing him to human blood from a bag more and more each day to try and desensitize him to it.

On Friday I had really been contemplating the pros and cons of leaving, I kept bouncing back and forth between leaving and staying and it was really weighing on Alice who kept seeing my future change and Edward who watched it through her. I found this out at lunch when Alice sat across from me and Edward in the cafeteria.

'That's enough Bella, you aren't going anywhere.' She said angrily as she plopped into the chair. Luckily everyone else at the table was preoccupied in their own conversations.

'Shh, Alice.' Edward whispered urgently and she waved him away.

'It's my choice to make Alice.' I said quietly looking down.

'Not if you're going to make the _wrong_ one!' she snarled menacingly, a few people had turned and looked at us and she forced herself to relax.

We were all silent for a few moments before Edward spoke softly 'Bella, she's right. You're safest here with us and I know you're worried about us but don't be. We've been around a long time and faced a lot of scrutiny but we've yet to be caught. What are you afraid of really?'

He saw straight through me, every time. 'I'm afraid of…' I couldn't continue.

'Love, what?' Edward touched my hand, urging me to continue.

'I'm afraid that they will come back, discover your family and I will have to kill everyone who discovers you.' I looked up at him. 'I don't want to kill anymore Edward.' I whispered.

'Come here.' He gestured towards himself and pulled me into his chest.

'You don't have to Bella.' Alice said much more calmly than she was previously 'That's where I come in, I won't let anyone get close to you.'

'I can't expect that of you Alice, you're spread thin enough as it is, watching everyone that wants to harm me is too difficult- even for you.' I furrowed my brow.

She smiled at this 'I made a mistake before; I didn't know who to watch. Since then I've done some recon and discovered who is in charge of any and all decisions regarding you. As long as I watch _them_ then I can see what their next plans are.'

'Really?' I sat up feeling a glimmer of hope.

'Geeze thanks for the vote of confidence Bella.' She said before leaning towards me and taking my hands from across the table. 'Do you trust me?' she asked looking at me intently.

After a moment, I begrudgingly nodded and she smiled a wide beautiful smile 'She means it.' She sat back looking smug and I rolled my eyes at her.

When we left school that afternoon the temperature had plummeted at least ten degrees and the first breath of cold air took my breath away. It emptied my lungs and then sent me into a coughing fit that lasted for several seconds.

'Breathe Bella.' Edward said taking me by the shoulders. By the time I finally caught my breath Alice had pulled up with Edward's Volvo.

'Get her in here, out of the cold.' She said to him. He sat me in the back seat and started to buckle me in.

'Edward, I'm fine. I've got it.' I waved his hands away and pulled the seatbelt over me. He got in next to me and looked as if he was appraising me, looking for something wrong with me.

'Edward, stop it, I'm fine. It was just the change in temperature.' He nodded curtly but didn't say anything.

Alice dropped me off at my house and she and Edward went back together to their home which I found strange. Edward would either always come to my house after school or I would go to his house so them not inviting me over and him not coming in was a little worrying. When he saw my face fall he smiled and promised to be back later tonight so I forced a smile back and went inside alone.

As promised Edward showed up later on that evening but not until around 8, I wasn't feeling great and was falling asleep by the time he got there. Even stranger than that was that he didn't comment on the fact that I wasn't myself, he just turned off the TV and carried me up to my bed where I fell asleep almost immediately.

 _Thanks again for reading! If you're enjoying the story please let me know!_


	8. Chapter 8

_Thanks again to Lionnara and bloodredeclipse for the reviews! The story is going to take a bit of a turn here but I promise it will go back to action soon enough. I also need to post a disclaimer here- I am not a doctor. Any medical information comes from my experience of working at a hospital and online research and I'm sure some of it is wrong- it's just a story. I also make a lot of assumptions about Alice's visions to make the story work a little bit better._

 _Bella, wake up! Bella!_ I felt myself shaking but I was confused, was I still sleeping?

'Bella, wake up, come on sweetheart…' I realized it was Edward shaking my shoulder gently. I tried hard to pry my eyes open 'That's it honey, come on.' With consciousness I realized that there was something off with my breathing and I felt incredibly dizzy.

'Edw'rd…' I gasped out.

'It's going to be ok Bella, keep breathing.' I heard the sound of his cellphone unlocking and the beep of him pressing buttons on the screen. 'I need an ambulance to 1134 Aspen St. South, I'm not sure, my girlfriend will barely wake up, and she can't breathe. Please send someone right away.' There was silence as Edward listened to someone on the other line and when he spoke again he sounded murderous 'No she didn't consume anything! She was having trouble breathing last night. Just get here, now' Even in my altered mental state I could feel the panic pouring out of him.

I felt him pull me up into a sitting position and bring his body behind me, leaning my back into his chest. I had no strength to help him. I could feel Aiden's fear coursing through me and I tried to assure him 'M'ok…' I said breathlessly.

'Don't talk, come on Bella, breathe with me, you can do it.' I felt the steady exaggerated rise and fall of his chest on my back and I tried to copy him but my lungs were constricted and I couldn't pull a decent breath in. My hands and feet were tingling and I felt myself getting dizzier and dizzier: I started to slide sideways off of Edward before he caught me and held me to him.

'Carlisle, its much worse than we thought, I had to call an ambulance, she can't breathe. Please meet us at the hospital.' A short pause 'Carlisle, _she can't breathe._ What's wrong with her? I know, I'm sorry. I'll see you there.' With that he hung up on Carlisle.

'Ok Bella,' he said readjusting me so I was sitting up straighter on him 'concentrate. If you were ever going to listen to me, listen to me now. You _breathe_ , hang on, the ambulance will be here soon, ok?' I nodded as much as I could. Somehow I managed to stay awake until the ambulance got there even though the lack of oxygen had really started to affect me.

I was barely hanging on to Edward's voice by the time that he picked me up and carried me downstairs where there was a stretcher waiting for me. As soon as they put the oxygen mask on me I started to feel clearer, more awake and as they went to push me away from Edward I grabbed onto his shirt sleeve, not willing to be separated- I was terrified.

'I'm coming with you Bella, I won't leave you, don't worry.' I relaxed and let go of his shirt, promptly passing out as I was loaded into the ambulance.

oOo

When I woke there was a deep pain in my back on the right side but breathing came so much easier than it had earlier when I was last awake. It was as if I had an adult man sitting on my chest and he had finally gotten off of me, the relief was instantaneous.

I felt a cold hand stroking mine, trying to rouse me I assumed and I fluttered my eyelids open to see Edward sitting next to me and Alice was leaning against the wall at the back of what was clearly a hospital room.

'Bella!' Edward softly exclaimed. 'Welcome back.' He said with a forced smile, I noticed Alice had looked up but didn't make a move closer to me. Aiden breathed a sigh of relief, showing me how worried he was.

'What happened?' I said hoarsely, my dry mouth sticking together, Edward brought a cup with a straw sticking out of the top of it to my mouth and I drank deeply.

'We're not sure yet… they have to run some more tests.' Edward wouldn't quite meet my eyes when he said this.

'But you have an idea.' I said skeptically.

'Carlisle is doing an x-ray soon, we will all find out then.' He didn't deny it.

'You can't see, Alice?' I asked the still form leaning against the wall.

She shook her head finally moving 'My visions are full of holes, the only thing that factors into them is the choices that people make. You didn't _choose_ to be sick so there's no way for me to know what is making you sick. I'm sorry Bella.' She was obviously annoyed with herself.

'Alice, there's nothing for you to apologize for.' I said to her and to my surprise Edward agreed.

'She's right Alice; you can't control what you see.' When it came to me, Edward was Alice's worst critic so it shocked me that he agreed with her.

Before she could sulk anymore Carlisle walked in and gave me a sad smile. 'How are you feeling Bella?'

'Much better, can I go home Carlisle?' I asked hopefully.

'Not yet Bella, we treated the symptoms but we still don't know what's causing your illness. I'm here to take you to get your chest x-rayed and then we can decide what to do after that. Ok?' I nodded begrudgingly. I laid back into the bed further when a searing pain shot through my ribs on the right side of my back.

I sucked in air as it seared through me. Edward grabbed my hand 'Breathe through it Bella, it will pass.'

'What… was that?' I panted.

'We had to insert a drain into your lung to remove all of the fluid that had built up in it. You couldn't breathe because you were drowning in your lungs.' Carlisle explained voice full of pity.

'Ugh.' I sighed closing my eyes 'How the hell did that happen?'

'We aren't sure, which is why we taking you for an x-ray, we'll know soon.' Carlisle had the same look that Alice and Edward had, that they already had a pretty good idea.

oOo

About an hour after I had a chest x-ray done Carlisle came back into my room with a copy of the picture. Having had x-rays done in the past I knew how quickly Carlisle must have expedited the process to have the results so quickly.

As soon as I saw him I realized that something was wrong, something in his face and the way he didn't look at any of us as he walked over to the light board where he attached the x-ray image. He stood there for a moment without turning it on as if he was hoping that by not turning it on it wouldn't be real.

'Carlisle?' I asked quietly, I could tell by the looks on Edward and Alice's faces that they already knew.

Carlisle sighed before slowly reaching up and flipping the light switch on illuminating a black and grey image of what I assumed was my lungs. As someone with no medical knowledge even I could see something was amiss.

In the middle of my right lung was a large white shadow over the uniform darkness, clearly not meant to be there.

'What is it Carlisle?' I asked, voice breaking already knowing the answer. Edwards head was rested down against my arm, listening to Carlisle's thoughts I was sure.

'We don't know for sure Bella, but it looks like a mass.'

'Cancer.' I said matter-of-factly.

'We don't know for sure, but it doesn't look good.' He said studying my reaction.

I nodded slowly, in shock 'What do we do next?'

He came and sat next to me 'Forks Hospital is not set up for the kind of diagnostics that you require- that _I_ require for you. I would never forgive myself if you didn't get the best treatment because I didn't want to trust another doctor. I'm referring you the University of Washington Medical Center, it's the best hospital in the state and their diagnostic equipment far surpasses ours.'

'I trust _you_ Carlisle.' What was happening was already terrifying- it was even worse now that he was sending me to a new place with people I didn't know.

He took my hand and smiled. 'I appreciate that Bella, I still plan on treating you, I just need their access to equipment that I don't have. Trust me, I think I like this even less than you do. I will be consulting with the doctors there, we will design a treatment plan together which I will treat you with here in Forks.'

'When am I going?' the resignation in my voice seemed to wake Edward up and he lifted his head enough so that his mouth rested on my arm while he rubbed my hand.

'Today. I've already been in touch with the doctors there and have expedited the process; they will be seeing you this evening. The ambulance is ready when you are.'

'Ambulance?' I swallowed. 'Is that necessary?'

'I know Bella, I'm sorry. They require it for admittance purposes in their hospital, Edward can ride with you and I will follow behind to meet with the doctors there.'

'How did this happen, Carlisle?' Edwards tortured voice asked, finally speaking.

'I'm honestly not sure Edward, I won't know until we have the tests in. It could be just random chance, genetics which we would never be able to figure out since Bella doesn't know her parents or it could be environmental which I think it the most likely given her upbringing. We don't know the kinds of things she was exposed to growing up with all of the tests that they conducted on her over the years.'

I took Edwards clenched fist in my hands, smoothing it open. 'We don't know for sure Edward, let's go figure it out.' He looked at me for a moment before nodding.

oOo

The ambulance ride there was bumpy, painful and just plain uncomfortable especially with the wounds in my back and arm still fairly fresh. Thankfully Edward rode with me the whole way, holding my hand and smiling when I caught his gaze but the smile never reached his eyes.

The only reason that I hadn't fallen apart was because I could see how close Edward was to doing just that. He was barely holding it together and it was scaring me. I couldn't let him see how I was feeling, if he saw that I was afraid I didn't know what it would do to him.

As soon as we got to the hospital I was whisked away for a series of tests that began with an MRI and ended with a biopsy of my right lung. The biopsy wasn't terrible, I was partially sedated and they inserted a needle through my chest wall to extract a tissue sample. When I was brought to a private hospital room it had been 6 hours since I had arrived and yet there Edward was, patiently waiting for me to come back.

'She is still partially sedated so don't let her get up on her own for another hour or two.' I heard the nurse say to Edward, looking at my chart as I was wheeled in on a stretcher.

Once I was on the hospital bed and she was out of the room Edward came up and sat next to me.

'I was beginning to think they you weren't coming back.' He said lightly pulling up a chair next to me.

'Me too.' I noticed a change in him 'You're in a better mood.'

He nodded 'Alice reminded me of what's important. I'm sorry for my reaction earlier Bella, I was helping no one. I'm here for you, ok? We're going to get through this, no matter what- you'll be ok.'

'Edward- you were in shock, you're allowed. This is scary and unexpected and I understand that you never signed up for this.'

'Bella, what are you saying?' his face was full of confusion.

I sighed but pulled myself up into a sitting position- my head spun as I changed positions. 'Edward, I don't expect you to hang around. Staying with me now would be crazy; if they're right and I have cancer then I'm going to be sick Edward- really sick. I can't force that on anyone else.'

'You think that I would just leave you? It gets tough and I leave?' he said angrily.

'It's not tough Edward its potentially insurmountable- I could die from this. I don't expect you to do anything; I'm asking that you get out.' He started to protest 'Edward, I can't do this to you; I can't hurt you every day. If this doesn't kill me the guilt of what I'm doing to you will.'

He held both of my hands 'Isabella, I would rather die than not be here with you. You aren't hurting me; you have nothing to feel guilty about. Whatever happens with this I'm here for you, I'm with you the whole way and there's no shaking me- ok?' I started to cry at his words.

'Hey-' he moved me over and laid on the bed, pulling me into his arms.

'I'm sorry.' I sniffled and laughed at the same time 'It's so stupid, after everything I've gone through in my life this should be a walk in the park. It's stupid… but I'm scared Edward.'

He laid my head against his chest 'It's not stupid, it would be stupid if you weren't afraid Bella, it proves that -contrary to popular belief- you are human. –I know, I'm surprised too.'

That made me laugh 'I know, shocking.'

We lay together quietly for long enough that I started to drift when Edward broke the silence. 'I'm not going anywhere Bella, as long as you want me, I'm here.'

 _Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!_


	9. Chapter 9

_Thanks again to Lionnara and bloodredeclipse for the reviews! Disclaimer again- not a doctor._

The next morning Carlisle came to my room, to tell us the results of the tests. Edward sat at the foot of my bed and I sat cross legged at the head.

'Bella, Edward.' He greeted us and pulled a chair in front of my bed, for someone who never sleeps, he looked exhausted. 'Sorry it took me so long to get back and explain everything; we've been discussing where we go from here and I think we have a plan.'

At his words I knew it was bad, my heart rate increased and Edward took my hand scooting closer to me as Carlisle spoke 'Bella the biopsy showed that the mass in your lung is in fact cancerous. To be specific its small cell lung cancer, which is very rare and in young people who don't smoke- incredibly so.' I felt my heart sink and grief course through Aiden.

' _How_ Carlisle?' Edward asked squeezing my hand; I wouldn't look at his face- I was afraid that I might fall apart.

'Honestly? I don't know.' He said shaking his head 'These things _can_ just happen but I have a feeling that all the tests that you were subjected to over the years may have caused it. But there's something else, its growing rapidly, much more rapid than normal which leads me to believe that whatever they injected into you over the summer either caused it or sped up the progression of the disease.

'We don't know what was in the drugs that they gave you but we _do_ know that there are many things that can cause this type of cancer including exposure to radiation- which is what I'm willing to bet may have caused it. Other causes are family history- which we have no way of knowing and being exposed to other chemicals and poisons.

'So the majority of people who are diagnosed with lung cancer are diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer which is a less aggressive form of lung cancer. Somehow you managed to develop small cell lung cancer which is much more aggressive and much faster spreading. Given that- between 60- 70% of people don't catch it until it reaches extensive stage and at that point the survival rates are extremely low.

'As incredibly unlucky as you've been, you've been equally as lucky- you have limited stage SCLC. This gives us many more options for treatment.'

I felt numb 'How long do I have, Carlisle?'

'I don't have that information Bella, but I can say that because it hasn't spread outside of your chest you have a chance. Once it metastasizes, the cancer is terminal. If we start treatment immediately we have a chance to beat this Bella.' I could hear Carlisle trying to reassure me but it was like my brain had turned off, I was having trouble forming coherent thoughts.

Edward rubbed my hand between his 'You said that you had been discussing what to do next Carlisle… Did you come up with a plan?'

'Yes, actually. Bella is in early enough stages to have surgery but I'm concerned with the rate of her healing. I think the cancer is causing you to heal much slower than normal and I don't want to subject you to major surgery when I don't know how you will heal.

'Our plan is to start with chemotherapy and radiation to help shrink the tumour and if the wounds in your arm and where we put the catheter in your back start to heal at a normal rate then we will reassess you for surgery. Bella?' Carlisle asked after a moment.

I looked up at him 'We're going to take care of this, ok? I'm going to take care of you.' I nodded and dropped my head again.

'When can I go home Carlisle?' I asked quietly, I just wanted to be back in familiar surroundings.

'Today, we're going to remove the drain and then you're free to go. I'm going to treat you in Forks but you will have to come back to Seattle for testing. If it's ok with you Bella I want to start your treatment tomorrow.' I looked up, shocked.

'So soon Carlisle?' Edward asked, I was so thankful for him, I could barely think let alone talk.

'I promise it's important, I wouldn't ask it of you if I didn't think it was necessary. We need to kill this now.' Carlisle took my other hand in his.

'Before it kills me.' I whispered.

oOo

The ride home was quiet, Carlisle drove and Edward and I sat in the back seat. Aiden had gone off somewhere to process this news which I was ok with- I couldn't take both of our grief right now. I was curled up against his side forgetting seat belts- I knew that Edward could buckle me up in less than a second if something happened. The whole way home Edward stroked my back being careful to avoid where they had drained the fluid off of my right lung.

Carlisle dropped us off at my house with the promise of seeing me on Tuesday. After discussing things some more we decided on treatment twice a week- every Tuesday and Friday for the next month. This was in addition to the radiation that I had to have every day for the next month then we would do scans again to see if it was still growing.

Aiden was waiting for me at my house where he apologized for leaving. 'It's alright Aiden, I'm ok I promise.' I smiled at him.

Edward was cooking me dinner when Alice came in.

'Bella!' she exclaimed as she pulled me into a hug. 'How are you feeling?'

I waved her away 'I'm fine Alice, just tired.' She pulled me over onto the couch.

'Well at least we have answers finally, no wonder you've been so tired.' I nodded.

'Bella, one way or another we will get you through this.' Alice told me.

'Alice…' Edward growled a warning from the kitchen.

'No Edward, it's not up to you anymore, she's a part of the family.' Alice said angrily.

Edward flew into the living room 'Alice! I asked you not to do this.' They glowered at each other for a minute before I intervened.

'What are you guys talking about?' I asked warily.

'Tell her Edward.' Alice glared at him.

He sighed and crouched down in front of me 'Bella… Alice thinks that it would be… _kinder_ to turn you now to spare you of any pain. But I can't do that to you, I _won't._ Not unless there is no other choice. You have a chance at life, a chance to live and I can't take that away from you.' I could feel Aiden's anger towards Alice at this; we didn't know what would happen to our connection if I was no longer human.

'You're acting as though she won't still be living. She will be Edward, and she will be free from pain. Bella, it's your life, your choice.' She looked at me expectantly.

'I think… that I would be a coward if I immediately took the easy way out. Edward wants me to stay alive and I will do everything that I can to keep it that way. If things go south then you know what I want, but you have to decide what you want.' I said, looking at Edward.

oOo

The next day Edward tried his hardest to deter me from going to school but if I was going to be sick for who knows how long then I had to take every opportunity that I felt well enough to go. Much to my massive embarrassment, news of my harrowing ambulance ride was public knowledge at this point. I wasn't quite ready for everyone to know yet but really, how long could I put it off once my hair started to fall out?

I decided to tell Angela first, I cared enough about her that I didn't want her to hear it second hand from anyone else. The two of us cried together, it was the first time that I had let myself cry since I found out. 'You're going to be ok Bella, you can beat this, I know you can.'

I smiled and nodded 'Thanks Ang, I really appreciate it.'

Next I told Jess, not because she was a great friend but because I knew that she would tell anyone who would listen. She cried her tears but I was out at that point.

I could tell that my teachers already knew. Carlisle must have called the school because the teachers all looked at me… _differently._ I could see it in their eyes when they looked at me- the dying girl.

Tuesday came far too quickly and once again Edward tried to talk me out of going to school again, especially since I would have to leave at lunch anyway to go to the hospital but I was determined. I still wanted that 'normal' life and given the circumstances I would fight for what I could get. And so I went to school.

The day passed far too quickly and before I knew it Edward and I were on our way to the hospital.

'Are you feeling alright?' he asked me as he drove.

'I'm ok, just nervous.' I said as I watched the trees fly by.

'Bella, please tell me if you don't feel well, we can't let anything go unchecked- not anymore.'

'Edward I never feel well, but trust that I will tell you if something changes. Ok?' It was true. I always had a constant ache in my chest and breathing was much more difficult than it used to be. He nodded solemnly.

oOo

Carlisle was there to greet us at the hospital when we got there which did a lot for my nerves. At least Carlisle was there to walk me through it and reassure me. I had 15 minutes of radiation first and then 2 hours of chemotherapy but before all of this was to happen Carlisle was going to insert a catheter into my chest called a Port-a-Cath.

This was the site in which they would be injecting me with the chemotherapy as well as every other medication and blood draw from here on out. It would be helpful in the fact that I no longer needed to be poked by needles but it was a physical thing that sealed the fact that I was sick. The procedure and recovery would take 2 hours- it was going to be a long day.

oOo

Edward came back into the room once the port was in place and I was still kind of loopy from the drugs they had given me.

'How are you feeling?' he asked as he approached my bed.

'Really good.' I grinned at him.

He laughed as he sat 'I bet. Carlisle wants you to relax until 2 then they are taking you for radiation. Are you up for it?'

'Absolutely.'

We talked for the next hour as he tried to keep me awake and then I was taken down for my first radiation therapy where we met Carlisle and he introduced me to the technician who was going to be administering the radiation.

'You don't need to worry Bella, radiation is painless and you shouldn't feel it at all. If you need something we will be able to hear you through an intercom. Are you ready?' Carlisle asked.

'I'm good Carlisle, I'm sure there are people who need you, I'll be ok.' I hated pulling him away from people who really needed him.

'I'm yours today Bella.' He smiled as he went to join Edward outside the room. He was of course right, it was painless, just loud and it was over before I knew it. From there though is where the anxiety kicked in, the last stop of the day was chemotherapy.

We got to the outpatient clinic and I was sat in a recliner chair where a curtain was pulled around me. A nurse came in and attached the chemotherapy drugs to the new port in my chest that was starting to become uncomfortable as the pain medicine wore off.

'Bella we're going to start you on some antiemetics as well as the chemotherapy to try to limit any nausea that you may experience.' Carlisle made sure that I was set up and comfortable before he went back down to the emergency room where he was needed.

I watched as the medicine made its way into my body and I felt a thrill of anxiety, Edward must have heard the increase in my heart rate.

'Are you alright?' he asked appraising me to see if I was in pain.

'This is a little too similar to a few months ago; I never thought that I would be willingly having poison pumped into me.' Edward looked at me sympathetically, Aiden agreed. It was taking everything out of him not to pull the port out of my chest.

'It's not the same Bella; hopefully this will undo whatever was done to you in the past.' Edward turned his chair to face me.

'I know… it feels the same though.'

In the beginning everything was going smoothly with Edward and I chatting the whole time while I tried to get some homework done- thankfully my teachers had given me what I was going to be missing. Around the hour and a half mark I started to feel off, the nausea was beginning to set in. I set my homework to the side and laid my head back against the headrest in the chair.

Edward laid his cool hand over my forehead which made a huge difference. I managed to make it through the full two hours without getting sick but I was barely holding it at bay. We were walking out of the hospital together, Edwards arm around my waist.

'Are you alright?' he quietly asked me as he half carried me to the car.

'Just get me home, please.' I said with teeth clenched.

I barely made it to the nearest bathroom once we got to my house, Aiden blasting the door open before my stomach emptied into the toilet. I held my arm up and back, knowing that Edward would be right behind me.

'Don't Edward, it must smell absolutely awful to you.' I felt his cold hand close around my wrist, being careful of the wound there as he pushed it back towards me and sat next to me.

'Don't be ridiculous, just relax.' His quiet gentle voice instantly soothed me. He pulled my hair back over my shoulders and I leaned into him as I flushed the toilet, I felt awful.

'It _feels_ like whatever they pumped into me last time too, not exactly but pretty similar.' He put his hand to my sweaty forehead.

'Feeling any better now?' he asked me.

'I think-' I was cut off by a sudden wave of nausea that was accompanied by more vomit. This went on for more than 3 hours until I was falling asleep from exhaustion. I would still gag every now and then but there wasn't even any stomach acid left at this point. Once the dry heaving seemed to be done I felt Edward pick me up and carry me upstairs to my bed where he laid me down and I fell asleep immediately.

When I woke up the sun was low in the sky streaming through the window, I assumed it was later in the evening until-

'Good morning.' Edward said quietly, I realized how close he was to me, he didn't usually hold me this closely at night, and I must have freaked him out. It took me a second to realize what he said.

'Morning?!' I exclaimed trying to sit up but he held me down.

'Shh… you're fine. You aren't going to school today.'

'What? Says who?' I felt terrible but I still wanted to go, since finally attending school I had missed WAY too much of it.

'Carlisle- doctor's orders, just relax. You need your rest. Plus- the suns out and you aren't going without me or Alice there.' I gave in and leaned into him, I felt barely rested. 'Fine.'

'How are you feeling?' he asked me.

'Better than yesterday, I'm glad that the nausea is gone. My stomach is just uneasy now and I'm still super tired, but I'm ok- promise.' I assured him. 'How are you?'

'I'll live.' He said grimly.

'I'm sorry…' I squeezed his hand, seeing me suffer was literally torture for him.

'Not your fault.' He kissed me on the head. 'Did you want to sleep some more or do you want to go downstairs.' I thought for a second.

'Downstairs, I've slept for I'm guessing at least 12 hours. Time to get up.' I got out of bed and tested myself standing for a minute before I tried to walk, I felt exhausted but my legs held and I headed downstairs.

Once I got to the couch I was exhausted, just walking down the stairs had zapped all of my energy. Edward laid a blanket over me and looked concernedly at the colour my face had turned.

'I'm ok, it will get easier- it's the first time.' He laid a bucket at my feet.

'Just in case you need it.' He said. 'Do you think you could stomach some food?'

I shook my head, no way. My stomach was uneasy enough.

'Water?' He asked. I contemplated the thought and then nodded.

'Yeah I'll try.' He was back a few seconds later with a glass which I tentatively took from him and then sipped from it. My stomach lurched but I managed to hold it down and after a few minutes I sipped a bit more. He threw something on the TV that neither of us really paid much attention to- him lost in his thoughts and me falling asleep.

I was startled awake by a gentle knock on the door. 'Shh, it's ok. It's just Alice.' He assured me. 'Come in Alice.' He said just as loudly, I heard the door open and I sat up a little straighter as she walked in.

She was carrying a plastic grocery bag which she unloaded into the fridge; I couldn't see what it was. 'Morning Alice.' I said from the couch.

'Morning Bella.' She said cheerily as she threw something at Edward and he deftly caught it. I realized it was a bottled drink as he began to unscrew the cap.

'What's that?' I asked as Edward passed me the brown drink with the work 'Ensure' written on it. Alice sat on the love seat to the right of us and said 'It's a meal replacement, eating will be difficult after chemo but you still need to get nutrition.' I sniffed it.

'It does _not_ smell good.' I wrinkled my nose.

'I know,' she gave me a sympathetic look 'there isn't much of it though, just get it over with quickly.'

I took a sip and while it tasted pretty awful it went down without threat of reappearing much to mine and Edwards relief. Alice hung around for most of the day, her and Edward playing a couple of games of chess and then we watched a new show that had come out on Netflix that Alice wanted to see.

By dinner time Edward wanted me to try to eat some actual food so he made me a couple of different types of vegetables which worked out pretty well, it was gentle enough on me that it stayed down. I was drinking some water when it went down the wrong way and sent me into a coughing fit.

By the time it was done my lungs ached and burned and I was exhausted again. I felt something press around my finger and I looked down to see a little purple square with a small display screen on it. 'What's that?' I croaked out.

'A pulse oximeter, Carlisle wants me to check your oxygen every day.' We watched as the display blinked lines across it before it settled on the numbers 94 and 79. 'Take some deep breaths Bella.' It was painful but I did as he told me and we watched as the 94 slowly increased to 100.

'Better?' he asked me and I nodded.

'Yeah I'm good.' I backed my chair up and went to bring my plate to the sink but Alice snatched it before I could.

'I've got it, go sit.' She said as she brought it to the sink to wash it.

'Guys, I can do my own dishes, I'm fine.' They were being ridiculous.

'I know.' she smiled at me and Edward led me to the couch, I just sighed and went with him. Alice left shortly after that promising to see me tomorrow and I went to bed about an hour after she left at 7:30, I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.

Thankfully before bed I had remembered to set my alarm so I woke up with plenty of time to get to school. Thankfully I felt much better than I did the previous day although mentally I knew I would be feeling awful again the next day.

The day went by with no issues except for the fact that everyone clearly knew that I was sick and I hated it. I had always been treated differently- that wasn't new to me, people who knew what I was were often frightened of me, being treated differently for this reason though made me feel so much worse. I couldn't wait for this to become old news, for people to get over it.

It was affecting Edward worse than it was me, I could see people's glances and hear their whispers but Edward heard _everything._ His amazing hearing made sure that he heard every word that people whispered to each other and not only that he heard their unfiltered thoughts which were even worse. I could see it in his face every time he would turn to glare at someone or stiffen up.

I took his clenched hand at lunch as he turned to glare at Jessica and Lauren who were whispering to each other at the other end of the table; I turned his attention back to me.

'Just ignore them, it doesn't matter what they are saying. They have nothing better to do.' He nodded curtly, clearly pissed off. It was then that there was a soft clang and the sound of liquid spilling; Jessica's Coke can had fallen over dousing her in pop. 'Aiden…' I growled as softly as I could knowing he was the culprit.

By the end of the day I was exhausted again but thankfully the nausea hadn't returned and I was able to eat some dinner. On Friday I didn't have treatment until after school so luckily I got to stay for the whole day before heading to the hospital with Edward.

After radiation I was sitting in the recliner chair getting chemo and talking to Edward when I noticed that his eyes were starting to get pretty dark. 'You should go eat; I'll be fine here for the next few hours.' I hated the idea of him being hungry because he didn't want to leave me.

He rolled his eyes 'I'm fine Bella; I'll probably go this weekend depending on how you are.'

I frowned 'I don't want you to be uncomfortable; you have to take care of yourself.'

'Don't worry,' he smiled 'I'm planning on going on Sunday.'

'Fine.' I grumbled.

That night went much like the first time, I spent hours in the bathroom with Edward bringing me water (which I mostly threw up) and comforting me. Once I could keep some water down, he gave me some anti-nausea medication and brought me back upstairs to my bed. I fell asleep almost instantly but woke up about an hour later and luckily Edward had left a bucket next to my bed because I shot up and vomited over the side of the bed into the bucket.

It was a long night, I woke up many times stomach heaving but every time Edward was there to comfort me and help me fall asleep. I didn't know what I would have done without him; all I knew was that I didn't deserve him. Our relationship was so unbalanced and I would always feel guilty about that fact, he deserved so much better than me.

 _Thanks again for reading!_


	10. Chapter 10

_Thanks to AlexisFoy27 and bloodredeclipse for the reviews! Here's an extra chapter that I'm releasing for my birthday tomorrow. Enjoy!_

The next few weeks were more of the same, chemo and radiation twice a week and going to school as often as possible. Some days the nausea was terrible and some days it was barely noticeable. As the days went by the fatigue increased, I was tired all of the time. I even found myself starting to drift off in school and I was usually in bed by 8pm at the latest, I just couldn't keep my eyes open.

Aiden kind of drifted in and out coming and going as he pleased. Seeing me sick upset him, I could tell and because he couldn't do anything to help he tended to stay away which I was fine with. The less people see me like this the better. Cole and I had still been corresponding but less so now. I knew that I was worrying him. He wanted to come and see me but I knew it would only worry me more; all I could do was reassure him.

As time went on I began to feel side effects of the treatment aside from the nausea and fatigue. I started to develop a radiation burn on my chest from where they were administering the treatment; I was starting to deal with painful mouth sores from the chemo which made chewing and eating difficult.

The most mortifying part though was that my hair had started to fall out. I knew that it would happen; it was only a matter of time. The real reason I was so upset about it though was that when it was all gone _everyone_ would know that I was sick just by looking at me.

Edward was the first to notice this; he was holding the back of my head as he kissed me, when he pulled away a decent amount of hair came away in his hand. I only noticed because of his face as he looked at his hand, he tried to hide it but I had already seen.

'Hey- look at me. Its fine, we can deal with this.' He could tell I was starting to panic, I nodded, and of course he was right. I had dealt with much worse things in my life than this, but that didn't make me feel any better.

'Sweetheart, I love you. I'll help you through this ok? I'm with you the whole way.'

'You don't have to be. There is already such a discrepancy between us, this only widens it-'

He cut me off 'Bella, you know that isn't true. Again you don't see yourself clearly at all, you also don't hear people's thoughts, I do.'

'Exactly, and you're going to be hearing a lot of pitying thoughts about the gorgeous young man with the sick bald girl. It has to be embarrassing.'

He looked affronted 'You think that I care what people have to think of us? How other people see us has no bearing on how I see you or think about you. Nothing that happens to you would make me think any different of you or see you as anything other than your beautiful self.'

I looked down 'I'm sorry… this is all so weird to me. I feel like I'm dragging you down, you can't even go and eat when you need to- you're too afraid to leave me.'

'Bella I make my own choices, if I didn't want to be here I wouldn't be and the truth is that there is literally nowhere I'd rather be.'

By the end of the week enough hair had fallen out that it was becoming noticeable, it was time to shave it off. One positive was that I didn't have to go to a salon to have it done, Alice volunteered to do it and that was where I found myself one afternoon in October.

'Do you want me to leave anything?' she asked tentatively.

'No, the shorter it is the more patchy it will be, just get rid of it all.' Within a few minutes it was all gone. 'So, how does it look?' I asked with a nervous smile.

'You look beautiful.' Edward said as he kissed my freshly shaven head.

'It really doesn't look bad Bella.' Alice told me.

Aiden was weirded out by how strange and un-me I looked, I could always count on him to be honest at least.

'Uh huh. Pass me the hat.' She sighed and tossed me the beanie I had fished out of my closet and I pulled it onto my head where I planned on it staying for the foreseeable future. I just had to avoid mirrors and I would be all set.

I went and sat on the couch as Alice finished cleaning up the hair that she wouldn't let me help with. 'So what is the CIA up to these days? No one will tell Cole anything.' I asked, no one had said anything about them in a while.

'I told you that I would tell you if something happened.' She said. 'They know that you're sick, as long as you're of no use to them or threat to them they will stay away.'

'Well that's good news, what about James and his friends?'

'He hasn't lost interest and he's planning on coming back at some point but it isn't a priority for him. He has no immediate plans.'

'Thanks for watching out for me Alice; I don't say thank you enough but I really mean it. I don't know what I would do without your whole family.'

'I don't know what you _did_ without us for so many years; it seems that anything that can go wrong goes wrong with you.' She said jokingly.

oOo

That night I lay in bed for a long time awake, wracked with anxiety about the next day. Even though I knew it was stupid and vain I hated the idea of everyone seeing me without hair- it felt like going to school naked.

Edward rubbed my arm 'Try to get some sleep Bella.' When I was still awake a few minutes later Edward sighed 'What are you thinking about?'

I was quiet for a few moments 'Tomorrow. What everyone is going to think.'

He gently touched my head and said ' _I_ think you're beautiful with or without hair. Whose opinion matters more?'

'Yours of course.' I sighed, 'Mostly I'm worried about you- you have to listen to everyone's thoughts tomorrow, not me.'

'I can take it; I've got a pretty thick skin.'

I laughed 'Yes you do, except when it comes to me. I can read your face like a book when it comes to someone thinking about me.'

He huffed out a laugh 'Sorry, I thought I hid it better than that.'

'You're doing the best you can… we both are.' I said quietly.

oOo

I had never in my life wanted to vanish as much as I did the next day at school, or at least pull my hat down over my eyes to hide. My friends were lovely and supportive to my face, and as hard as Edward tried to hide it I could tell their thoughts were very different. My day went by so slowly, it was filled with curious stares and sympathetic looks.

Not only that but I was having trouble breathing, I couldn't tell if it was from anxiety or if it was an issue with my lung. Either way the last thing I needed was Edward overreacting and making me leave school, I already had enough embarrassment for one day.

By the time we arrived at my house I had a pretty bad ache in my chest that was very obviously not anxiety. I knew that I was being stupid for not wanting to tell Edward, he would be even more worried if I just collapsed a few days from now- even worse he'd blame himself.

Edward was just parking the car in my driveway and he was about to get out of the car when I put my hand on his arm to stop him. He looked at me curiously 'What's the matter?'

'My chest hurts.' I admitted reluctantly, he reached into his pocket and slipped the pulse oximeter on my finger. After a few seconds the values lit up on the screen, my oxygen was at 89%. I knew that 88% was the lowest amount that was considered ok while most healthy people were at 100%. 89% wasn't great.

He slid his seatbelt back on 'We have to get you to Carlisle.' He said sadly.

I sighed and leaned back 'I know, sorry to make you spend more time in the hospital.'

'Don't be silly, I'm _really_ glad you told me Bella.'

'Well I know how you would react if I were to just pass out on you.'

'Yeah I'm really weird about people passing out on me.' I laughed and he cracked a smile, but of course my laugh turned into a coughing fit which made my chest ache horribly.

At the hospital they put me on oxygen to get my sats up while they did an x-ray of my chest to see what was causing my problems. It turned out that my lung was starting to fill with fluid again and unfortunately that meant that they needed to insert a shunt again which was no fun.

Carlisle made the decision to leave it in after draining the fluid, at least until my scans next week, -I wasn't very happy about this. Once the fluid was out, my sats went right back up to 100% which was good news.

By the time we got back home it was 8 o'clock and I was barely conscious. I managed to down an Ensure before going to bed so that Edward wouldn't worry too much about me not eating. Unfortunately I found sleep difficult, the pain and pressure of the shunt in my back made getting comfortable impossible and it took me a long time to fall asleep again.

The rest of the week went by without incidence and the day of my scans came up way too quickly. The drive to Seattle was long and painful. I had had treatment the day before and I was still nauseous, my back hurt from the shunt and my chest hurt from the radiation burns. I was miserable.

After a full day of scans and tests we drove back home to wait on the results. Unfortunately without Carlisle there to expedite the process we were forced to wait and worry just like everyone else. Three days later after my treatment was done we drove to the Cullen's home where Carlisle held the results of the scans.

I felt pretty terrible, but I had yet to vomit and I was worried that it may still be coming. Nevertheless, I needed to know the results.

After greeting his family, even Rosalie who seemed to lighten up around me a little now that I was dying, we went to Carlisle's study (as if going to a separate room gave us any privacy in a house full of vampires.)

'So there's good news and bad news. The good news is that the cancer hasn't gotten worse; it has even shrunk a little bit. Bad news is that it hasn't responded as much as we were hoping it would, it hasn't shrunk enough for us to go ahead with surgery. We're going to try to switch to a different medication that the Seattle doctors think may work better.'

'What do you think?' I asked Carlisle.

'I think it's worth a try, at this rate the medication we're trying won't heal you, and we need to try something else. The routine will stay the same, we won't know for sure until after you've started it but the side effects shouldn't change too much.'

I was crestfallen, I so hoped that there was going to be good news and learning that the last two months were for nothing was devastating. I was sick, exhausted and in pain and it felt like I was suffering for no reason. All I could do was nod.

'Hey-' Edward took my hand 'it's ok, you can do this.' I just nodded again, I knew he was just as devastated as I was but was trying to remain optimistic. I could see it in his face how torn he was about not wanting to turn me, especially now.

I had suffered for a few months only for it not to amount to much and I could see the conflict in Edwards eyes, he wanted me to stay human but him not turning me meant that I had to keep suffering. I didn't want him to feel anymore guilty than he did so I tried to smile to reassure him.

oOo

The next month passed by slowly, I was constantly exhausted- to the point that I was only going to school one or two days a week. I was also having a lot of trouble eating and keeping food down, the pain in my mouth stopped me from chewing and the chemo completely took away my appetite.

I could tell how much this was eating at Edward, he tried everything to get me to eat and I would always try but it was so difficult. Alice had the genius idea to make smoothies and they packed as many supplements into them as possible while also trying to get me to eat soft steamed vegetables, even with this my weight loss was obvious.

Aside from all of this I had been noticing other things like lapses in memory and thinking. It was mostly little things but they were very noticeable to me like walking into a room and completely forgetting why I was there, or being halfway through my homework and having no memory of what I had written or what the subject was that I was working on.

I knew that 'chemo brain' was a thing but this seemed pretty severe, and while it was annoying it didn't seem life threatening so I decided not to mention it to anyone. I couldn't worry Edward any more than he already was. There had also been a couple of times recently where I had forgotten simple words and even my friends and the teachers names at school- this had freaked me out a little bit.

oOo

It was about middle of December by the time it began to really get cold out and began to snow- needless to say I wasn't pleased. I had to put on so many layers because of how cold I was all the time, my circulation was shot. I was currently in a week off of chemo and had been to school every day, it was Friday and I was more than ready to have the weekend off.

All throughout school that day I couldn't help but notice that I felt off, my mind felt foggy and I felt that my thoughts and reactions were slower. Edward had definitely noticed and was taking great care around me. I hated this feeling, I felt like I had suddenly become so much dumber and slower.

By the time I got home after school it had gotten worse, I found myself spacing out and staring off into nothing, Edward sat me on the couch.

'Hey, what's going on up there?' he asked me, turning my face to look at him.

I shook my head to clear it 'I dunno… I feel funny, my head feels cloudy.'

'Does it feel like this a lot?' he asked me, pulling out his phone.

I shook my head again, 'Not like this.'

'I'm going to call Carlisle to see what he thinks, ok?' I just nodded and tried to keep myself focussed.

I listened to Edward speak to Carlisle for a few moments before I start to smell something awful but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. 'What is that smell?' I half slurred.

'Bella?' Edward asked nervously before everything went black and I half thought I heard Edward yell 'She's seizing!'

 _Please leave me a review as a birthday gift to me! Thanks again for reading!_


	11. Chapter 11

_Thanks to keljvt, Lionnara, bloodredeclipse and AlexisFoy27 for the reviews! Here is the longest chapter I have written yet!  
_

When I woke up I was confused and disoriented, I was strapped to what felt like a table, it was loud and I was being jostled around. I reacted instinctively trying to sit up and when I couldn't I panicked and reached with my mind grabbing hold of anything and everything in my panic.

I heard a strange voice yelling and I opened my eyes to see a paramedic crouching in the back as medical supplies and broken glass rained down on him. I also noticed that Edward stood above me shielding me from the wreckage I had caused. Realizing what was happening I calmed down and passed out again.

This time when I began to stir I heard Edward voice immediately murmuring to me, pulling me towards consciousness.

'…it's ok Bella… you're ok, you're safe.' I came around pretty quickly, this time without freaking out or destroying anything. As soon as I became conscious, memories of the last time came back.

'Sorry…' Was the first word I said when I opened my eyes.

'You have nothing to be sorry for. Don't worry sweetheart.'

'The ambulance…' I said.

'A freak accident that the hospital has profusely apologized for.' He gave me a knowing smile.

'What happened?' I asked; my head so much clearer than it was before I lost consciousness.

'You had a seizure Bella; we're going back to Seattle as soon as the transport people get here so that you can have scans of your brain done. They aren't sure what caused it…' he trailed off as though he was stopping himself from saying something.

'They think it metastasized don't they.'

He gave me a grim look. 'We don't know that Bella.'

'Edward, if it did…'

'-Bella, we don't know anything yet. It's best not to guess.'

oOo

Hours later after a ride to Seattle and numerous tests Carlisle came in to give us the news.

'Your cancer has metastasized. We are now classifying your cancer as Extensive Stage because of the met in your brain. The good news is that it is the only other tumour in your body that we found, also your existing tumours are shrinking and the new one is quite small.

'The bad news is that the tumour is located in the frontal lobe of your brain, specifically it is touching Broca's Area, this is the speech centre of your brain. This tumour has also caused you to have frontal lobe epilepsy as far as we can tell. Unfortunately because the cancer has spread surgery is no longer an option.

'Since the cancer isn't as affected by this round of chemo as we hoped we are going to switch you from cisplatin to carboplatin. At least this will reduce the side effects that you are feeling; we are also going to be adding radiation to your brain to hopefully stop the growth of the tumour there.

'We're going to start you on an anti-seizure medication, but unfortunately the only way we will know if this was a one-off or if you have frontal lobe epilepsy is if you continue to get seizures.' Carlisle finished explaining. As awful as this news was, I had kind of assumed that it had spread.

'This isn't curable anymore, is it Carlisle?' I asked sadly.

He looked at me sadly and shook his head slowly 'It's not likely, I think that we could give you a couple more years but we need to find a medication that works better for you.' Edward had stiffened again, his face unreadable.

'Worst case scenario we don't find anything that works, how much time are we looking at?' I wasn't a best case scenario kind of person, nothing best case scenario ever happens to me.

Carlisle sighed 'If nothing changes we are looking at 6 months to a year.' A chair went flying across the room into the wall.

'Aiden, stop. Edward, it's fine.' I whispered to him 'That's just worst case scenario.' I tried to comfort him, he gave me a small smile and nodded.

'Carlisle what happens if the tumour in her brain continues to grow?' Edward spoke for the first time, voice strained.

'It will cause more seizures but also may cause issues with speech and word finding, it may also start to cause some memory issues because of where it is located. If any of these symptoms become suddenly worse or obvious make sure that you either tell me or go to the emergency room. I know that the seizures are scary but as long as they don't last more than 5 minutes I'm not worried about them. It will be better for Bella to wake up somewhere familiar than somewhere strange.' Carlisle explained.

I nodded in agreeance 'I don't want to rip apart another ambulance accidentally.'

Edward looked concerned and as though he wanted to argue but he just nodded instead.

'So, we're going to change your routine a bit. Instead of one hour of chemo twice a week for three weeks with three weeks off we are changing it to once a week for four hours. We aren't going to give you time off this time, just the 6 days between doses; we need to hit this cancer hard. We're going to continue with radiation as normal except we will be adding radiation to your brain as well as your lungs. We're going to try this for one month before we do more scans to see how the cancer is reacting.'

I just nodded, I was emotionally drained and I just wanted to go home.

oOo

Edward didn't leave my side all weekend, and I'm assuming that he had told Alice to stay away because she hadn't shown up since before I had the seizure. I was relieved that my doctors had decided to put my treatment day on Fridays from now on so I hopefully wouldn't miss any school.

That plan went belly up on Wednesday morning when I got up for school. I was washing my face in the sink when I noticed that the water running off of my face was red. I looked up in the mirror and saw blood pouring out of my nose. This nosebleed had come on so quickly and so violently that it shocked me.

I grabbed my towel off of the wall and held it to my face quickly rinsing the blood down the drain hoping to wash the smell away.

'Bella?!' Edwards panicked voice yelled- too late.

'I'm fine, it's just a nosebleed. Stay away.' My voice was muffled through the towel.

He was knocking at the door 'Bella, let me in.'

'No Edward, get out of the house so you don't have to smell the blood. It will stop soon.' I begged him.

'I'm not leaving Bella, please let me in.' I sighed, I really didn't want him to break the door down out of fear so I unlocked it.

Judging by his face I must have looked awful, all I could see was the blood drenched towel that I held. 'I'm sorry.' I said.

'Shh.' He lead me by my shoulders to sit on top of the toilet seat cover and got me to squeeze the bridge of my nose hard as he called Carlisle and spoke to him hurriedly for a few moments.

He hung up the phone and I said 'Calm down Edward, I'm fine. It's not a big deal.'

'As long as it stops it's not a big deal. If it's still going in 15 minutes we're meeting Carlisle at the hospital.'

'Don't breathe.' I told him and he shook his head again.

'I'm fine, don't worry about me.' I shook my head. Stupid stubborn vampire.

Five minutes passed, then ten. Coming up on 15 minutes it was still pouring blood, I had saturated two towels by this point and the third was well on its way out by the time I started to get nauseous and light headed. I was starting to slump over, eyes closing on the toilet by the time Edward said 'Okay, we're going. Keep your eyes open Bella.'

He didn't give me a chance to respond, he just scooped me up in his arms put me in the car and took off for the hospital.

oOo

Carlisle tried for about an hour to staunch the flow of blood but nothing he did worked, he ended up needing to cauterize the bleed in my nose to finally get it to stop. After this I slept for hours, my blood counts were so low that they needed to give me a transfusion. It was after this that I finally started to perk up but they decided to keep me until the next day to make sure that it wouldn't start again.

When I woke up the next morning my head pounded, my mouth was dry, my nose hurt and I just generally felt terrible. It was what I imagined a bad hangover to be, and while I felt terrible, at least the nosebleed hadn't started again so they sent me home at ten o'clock the next day.

Edward deposited me on the couch that I had spent too much time on lately and went to get me a Gatorade that I didn't know we had. I guessed that Alice had been here and brought some things that Edward had asked her to.

By the time Friday came around and they tested my blood my counts were way too low and they decided not to give me the treatment until we tested again in two days. While it was nice that I could have a few more days without chemo it was stressful that I had to go more days without the medicine that I needed to live.

After 6 days of low counts and laboured breathing they decided to give me another blood transfusion which made me feel better but my breathing was still difficult and my oxygen was at 84%. They decided to give me an x-ray to see if it was fluid buildup and unfortunately it wasn't which mean that the tumour had grown.

Carlisle decided to send me home with an oxygen tank which I was mortified about even though he assured me that it was only for when I really needed it. I had shoved it in my closet refusing to use it no matter what… until 12 hours later when I woke up gasping for breath and Edward put the cannula in my nose.

Two days later I was finally cleared to resume my chemo and it turned out four hours of chemo was monotonous and torturous. The last two hours were hell, I felt awful and the time crawled by. When Edward and I finally got home that night we walked into an elaborately decorated house and it took me a few moments to realize that they were Christmas decorations.

'Jesus Alice… Wait… what day is it?' I turned to Edward confused.

He smiled his crooked smile 'Its December 19th.' He laughed.

'Holy, where did the time go?' I was shocked and then felt incredibly guilty 'I haven't got you anything.' I said sadly.

'When could you have possibly got me something?' he laughed 'The only thing I need is you, you just keep fighting.' He finished seriously.

'I'm trying Edward… it doesn't seem that anything I do is helping though. I'm just getting worse.'

'We just need to hope that this new treatment does it. You're doing amazing Bella.' He kissed me on the forehead.

'Thanks… Sorry about Christmas, I haven't had a Christmas since I was five. I'm kind of out of practice.'

He laughed and led me to the living room 'Yeah we figured, but you know Alice- she isn't going to let you go without celebrating every single holiday possible.'

I smiled and nodded 'I get it, live every day to its fullest and all that- not always the easiest thing unfortunately.' I said as I slumped into the couch, exhausted.

oOo

The next day I felt a little off but miraculously I didn't feel sick from the chemo from the day before so I decided to go to school. Mortifyingly Edward decided to bring my oxygen tank to school with us; luckily it was small enough to fit in a backpack so no one could see what it was.

By second period I was beginning to feel very odd, it seemed familiar but I couldn't place why. I felt out of it, like I was half asleep, half dreaming while still being conscious. I was totally out of it until the bell rang signalling the end of the class and it snapped me out of it for a second long enough for Edward to get in front of me and start talking.

'Bella? Are you hearing me?' I looked at him confused before he was pulling me up out of my seat and ushering me out of the school. I didn't understand what was happening and I was having trouble forming the words that it would take to ask what was going on. Before I knew it I was sitting in his car and he was reaching across me to do up my seatbelt.

I felt like getting home took seconds rather than the ten minutes it always took. I was barely aware of Edward picking me up and carrying me up the stairs to my bed before everything went dark.

When I woke up I couldn't even form a thought, the only thing I was aware of was Edward stroking my forehead and quietly murmuring to me, reassuring me. I felt comfortable and safe enough to fall asleep, knowing that he was there to keep me safe.

The next time I woke, the room was darker than it had been; the soft lamplight in the corner of the room was the only source of illumination. It was clearly hours later and yet there Edward was- a constant vigil at my side.

'Hey.' I said quietly, cutting through the silence.

He was quiet for a moment, tortured eyes watching me. He kissed my hand and said 'Am I making the wrong choice? Should I have turned you the moment you asked me?' I watched him for a moment, my brain was still taking a bit to catch up, I then saw how guilty he looked.

I slowly shook my head. 'You never would have forgiven yourself for ruining my chance at life.' My speech was still slurred but I was trying. 'I had to try- for both of us… 'M not done yet.' My eyes were drifting shut again.

'I know you aren't sweetheart. Its ok, go back to sleep. You'll feel better in the morning.' He stroked my forehead as if he were brushing my hair away- hair that was long gone. It was still a comforting gesture.

When I truly woke up it was still dark out and I was feeling much better, much clearer.

'Are you with me finally?' Edward asked, smiling.

I sat up in my bed stiffly 'Yeah I think so, I feel a lot better. What happened?' My memory was foggy at best.

'You had another seizure.' He said watching me.

The last thing I remembered other than our late night conversation was being in school and feeling ill, I felt a thrill of panic. 'Did I have it at school?!'

He shook his head and held my hand soothing me 'No, I got you home in time, don't worry.'

I breathed a sigh of relief 'Thank you… How did you know I was going to have a seizure?'

'You were staring off into space during class for an inordinate amount of time, you jumped at the bell and when I tried to talk to you, you weren't really coherent. I figured that you were either having a seizure or about to and luckily I got you into your bed right as it started.'

I rubbed my thumb on the back of his hand. 'What would I do without you?'

'Be very embarrassed.' He smiled downplaying his role in my life as per usual.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and groaned at the sudden stiffness all over my body. Edward was at my side in less than a second, 'What is it?' he looked at me looking for a source of injury.

I waved him off, 'I'm fine, just sore.' I stood up and tested my legs- they held. After the walk down the stairs my lungs were a different story, I was completely out of breath by the time I reached the bottom. Edward offered to carry me but I was determined.

'No, just give me a second.' I gripped the banister with my left hand and Edwards hand in my right, closed my eyes and took some deep breaths.

'Thanks Aiden.' Edward said as I felt the prongs of the cannula enter my nose. 'Breathe in through your nose.' I heard the hiss of the oxygen as I felt it blowing into my nose, Aiden must have brought the oxygen tank, this time I didn't care or argue- I knew I needed it.

After about 30 seconds I took the last few shaky steps to the couch and Edward gently lowered me down to it. The effort of getting to the couch wracked me with coughs, even to me these coughs sounded awful. Edward put my head between my knees and rubbed my back until the coughs stopped and I was gasping for breath.

'Good, it's coming back up; keep breathing through your nose.' I opened my eyes to see the little purple pulse oximeter on my finger I was too exhausted to see what the number read and I left my head hang down again.

Edward picked me up by my shoulders and leaned me back into the couch seeing that I was too exhausted to hold myself up. I leaned over until my head rested on his shoulder and my breathing slowly relaxed as the oxygen worked.

'Feeling any better?' he asked quietly and I nodded into his shoulder.

We were quiet for a bit before I broke the silence 'This sucks. I just woke up and I'm already exhausted.'

He took his hand and leaned his head on top of mine 'I know. I'm thinking no more stairs without oxygen.' He said quietly.

I nodded, resigned. 'Not long now until I will need it permanently.' He held up my hand with the pulse oximeter still on it.

'This seems to be the highest you'll go now.' I looked down and I was at 92% oxygen saturation.

'What was my lowest?' I didn't really want to know.

'You dropped to 79% at the bottom of the stairs.'

'That's not ideal.' I said.

'No.' he agreed quietly.

Alice showed up at 8am to my surprise. 'Shouldn't you be at school?' I asked her as she sat down on the loveseat.

'I'm sick, school sucks without you guys there. Plus, todays the last day before Christmas break, no one shows up. Oh, I have your homework too,' she handed it to Edward 'enjoy!'

I laughed and then coughed 'Thanks Alice.'

'Are you ready for breakfast?' she asked excitedly. That time off from chemo had let my mouth heal up pretty well and while I didn't have an appetite at least there was no pain.

'Yeah I'll try, I can make it though. You don't need to baby me Alice.' I leaned forward about to stand and was pulled back by Edward.

'You need to rest Bella, I've got it. How hungry are you?' she asked me.

'Not at all.' I said sheepishly.

She nodded 'I figured. I won't make you a lot.'

'Thanks Alice.'

For the next three days it was more obvious that I was very quickly becoming dependant on the oxygen. I tried to go as long as I could throughout the day without it but I kept needing to reattach it while I was up. Edward went hunting on Thursday and Alice hung out with me at my house, I was going stir crazy but there was a snow storm outside.

As stupid as it was I was anxious with worry about Edward being out in this weather and it was pretty obvious to Alice.

'Bella, stop being ridiculous, the cold doesn't affect us. Edward is fine.'

'I know.' I sighed 'I have nothing to do but worry.'

Alice ignored this 'So Christmas you're coming to our house to celebrate-'

'Aw Alice, don't make me. I didn't get anyone anything and you know how I hate gifts.'

'Too bad, you haven't had a proper Christmas in more than 10 years, you're coming over. Plus, Edward loves Christmas. Anyways I wasn't telling you to give you the option, I was telling you because I wanted to know how you feel about Jasper being there.' She looked nervous.

Aiden bristled, I had barely realized he was there. Lately he was either silently watching or off doing his own thing. He was behaving himself immensely, it kind of made me sad though, I missed him.

'You know I'm ok with that Alice, I think him staying away for so long is ridiculous.'

'I swear he's much better now! He barely reacts to human blood at all anymore-'

I cut her off 'Alice, I know he's safe. You don't need to convince me.'

'Oh, right. Well, good! The whole family is excited to see you, they miss you.'

I immediately felt guilty, I was not only spending all of my time in the house but I was also keeping Edward away from his family. 'And Edward, sorry Alice. I don't mean to keep him away, if I could force him to take time off from taking care of me trust me I would.'

'Never mind Edward,' she waved her hand dismissively, 'we all dealt with his moping around for years, we're glad to see him happy and we don't mind him spending some time away. Time passes much more quickly for us.'

I nodded, still feeling guilty. As the day went on I wasn't feeling the best and I was very glad when Edward came home. I felt a weight lift off of me as he walked in covered in snow with a bag over his shoulder; this feeling was so foreign to me. I had never before been so dependent on another person and it made me a little bit nervous, trusting people had never been easy for me.

He walked in and walked behind the couch kissing me on top of my hat.

'How are you feeling?' he asked me.

'I'm good.' I smiled.

'I'm just going to change my clothes, I'll be right back.'

'I'm going to go soon, will you eat some dinner?' Alice asked me.

I was the furthest thing from hungry 'Maybe a smoothie?' I asked knowing that she wouldn't take no for an answer.

'Fine. Have a smoothie now and an Ensure later.' The thought of Ensure made my stomach turn.

As Alice was blending me a smoothie with who knows what in it Edward sat down next to me and kissed me.

'Have fun?' I asked him.

'I did, I worried about you though. How are you feeling?' he said as I leaned over onto his shoulder.

'I'm fine, I'm going a bit stir crazy.'

'You feel warm.' He put a hand to my head.

'I always feel warm to you.'

'More so right now. Alice, can you grab the thermometer from the upstairs bathroom?'

'Yep, here Bella, drink this.' She passed me the smoothie that she made, I could tell that my taste buds were off, it barely tasted like anything. She returned a minute later with the thermometer and handed it to Edward who put it in my mouth until it beeped then pulled it out and examined it.

'You have a low grade fever, we're going to watch it and give you some aspirin hopefully it will come down on its own.' He said.

'Got it.' I heard Alice's voice say from upstairs, she was down in a flash handing me two pills which I took with the smoothie I was trying to drink.

'Alright, I'm headed out. I will see you guys on Saturday!' She gave me a hug 'Feel better Bella!'

'Thanks Alice, see you Saturday.' I smiled.

We were quiet for a while as I tried to finish the smoothie but I was struggling.

'It's ok; you don't have to drink it all. Don't make yourself sick.' He said watching me.

'Thanks.' I sighed and he took it from me and put it on the table.

'Do you want to go to bed?' he could see how tired I was.

I nodded 'Yes please.'

'Want me to carry you?' I shook my head 'Alright, oxygen on.' I didn't argue as he handed me the cannula, instead I pulled it under my nose and around my ears as he set up the tank. 'Ready.'

'Yep, lets go.' It took me two breaks to get up the stairs but I finally made it to the top and onto my bed.

'Good job Bella.' Edward said as he kissed me on the forehead. We left the oxygen on for the next few minutes until I was back up to my new normal. I was half asleep by time Edward took it off of me and fast asleep by the time he climbed into bed with me.

 _Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!_


	12. Chapter 12

Two days later on Christmas morning we woke up to the snow having been melted by rain- of course, the one day you want snow and it's gone.

I woke up and I still had my fever, it had gotten a bit worse over the last few days. When I woke up Edward brought me some aspirin and a glass of water and had me lay in bed until it kicked in. I was feeling pretty awful but I knew that Alice would kill us if we were to not show up so I eventually got up and got ready.

It was slow and I had oxygen and Edward helping where he could, but I eventually got dressed and ready and we headed for his house. Aiden was very vigilant and on edge for the first time in a while knowing that we would be seeing Jasper, I tried to calm him, assuring him that we would be fine.

When we got to his house I realized that it was the first time anyone would see me with oxygen and I was immediately flooded with anxiety. I came to a stop on our way up to the door.

'Bella? What it is?' Edward sounded scared and looked at me to see why I stopped.

Aiden told Edward that it was because of the oxygen. 'Bella, you don't need to be embarrassed love. No one will judge you for needing air to breathe.'

I wasn't afraid of being judged, I was afraid of being pitied. With the oxygen and beanie over my clearly bald head I looked pretty pitiful. I took a shaky breath in and nodded and continued the walk to the door, Edward carrying the tank in a shoulder bag between us.

Everyone was lovely of course; I don't know why I had expected anything else. Even Rosalie was pleasant; I guess her hatred ebbed when she saw how sick I had become. It was nice seeing Jasper again after a few months as well.

The day was really nice, but also made me kind of sad. This was the first real family Christmas that I could remember having, there were so many little things that I had been robbed of that usually didn't bother me, but days like today showed me how much I missed out on. To make it worse it seemed more and more likely that this would be my last human Christmas, perhaps my last Christmas at all.

By early evening I was feeling terrible again, everyone was having their own conversations and thankfully continued them as Carlisle came over to check me out.

'Hey Bella,' he said quietly crouching down in front of me 'can you put this thermometer under your tongue.' I took it from him and held it there until it beeped. It read 102.3.

'It's still going up.' Edward sighed.

'We have to break this fever Bella, I would like to admit you. We need to start you on an IV and closely monitor you.' Carlisle told me.

'Do I really need to be admitted?' I was crestfallen; this was horrible enough without being subjected to a hospital on Christmas.

'I would prefer it but it's your choice, I can get everything brought to your house and I can get you set up and get Edward to keep up with helping this come down.'

I sighed 'No, I can't ask that of you guys just because I don't want to go to the hospital.' That was just plain selfish.

'Carlisle, bring it to her house. We'll do it there.' Edward said.

'No- Edward, I can't expect that of you.'

'Bella, please, don't insult me. Carlisle when can you get the supplies to her house?' he asked his father.

'Not until tomorrow morning. Bella, will you sleep here tonight so that I can monitor you to make sure that you don't get worse throughout the night?' Carlisle asked.

Aiden was not pleased with me potentially spending the night in the same house as Jasper and I quietly shushed him which of course everyone in the house heard.

'Aiden, are you concerned for Bella's safety?' Carlisle asked the thin air knowing that Aiden was there.

'He is.' Edward answered.

'I wish that I could just give you the assurance that Bella would be safe here, because I already gave you that assurance once and she was pretty seriously injured on my watch. Instead I will ask Jasper to leave for the evening while she sleeps here. Ok?' Carlisle asked for his approval.

'What? No! That's so unfair. I have my own house that I can sleep in, there's no reason to kick Jasper out.' Everyone was listening at this point and I was mortified that Carlisle had offered to kick his son out for me.

'Bella it's ok, you have to stay here tonight and I still don't fully trust myself, your safety is more important than my feelings.' Jasper smiled as he said it to assure me.

It was bad enough that I had to be babysat, even worse that I had to inconvenience someone, but knowing that I was outnumbered I just nodded and quietly said 'I'm sorry.' Aiden was pleased.

oOo

Unsurprisingly I survived the night and displaced my boyfriend's brother for no reason. As promised Carlisle set up an IV for me in my living room and after 3 days my fever had finally broken leaving me feeling a little bit better.

As the weeks passed it was obvious that the new chemo was doing about as much as the old medications had. The increased radiation wasn't doing much either as far as I was aware. I was getting sicker and sicker and it was obvious to everyone- I could see it in their eyes.

Two months later I was now completely dependent on oxygen and was having multiple seizures per week. I was in pain more often than not and no matter how hard I tried to hide it Edward could tell and I could see it eating at him.

Edward and Alice had moved my bed to the bottom floor, the stairs had become way too much for me. My seizures had become so much and my breathing was such an issue that I was no longer attending school which had really upset me but it just wasn't feasible anymore. Not much was feasible anymore.

Carlisle and I had talked briefly about my options depending on the results of the scans, if the results showed that there was no improvement or that the disease had progressed we agreed that that would be it. We had exhausted all options and it was useless and painful to continue trying to cure me.

Day of the scans Edward was silent as he helped me to his car, clearly terrified of the results that would determine how much longer I had to live. He held my hand the whole way there and only let go to push me in the hospital in a wheelchair.

After hours of testing I was in a lot of pain and exhausted, Edward drove me home to rest and we had nothing to do but wait. What would normally have been a few days wait only took 3 hours with Carlisle pushing for it.

Carlisle came to my house to give us the results; he came and joined us in the living room that had become my permanent residence. I knew by looking at him, he looked as though he had aged ten years in the months that he had been trying to heal me. He didn't have to say a word, truth be told I already knew.

'It's ok Carlisle; you did everything that you could.' I said to him with a sad smile.

'I'm sorry Bella. You just aren't responding to any treatments enough for us to justify continuing them. The side effects are too much for your body to handle and while they are slowing the growth of the tumours they aren't a cure.' He sounded devastated.

I nodded 'I know. What's the plan now?'

He sighed 'Keep you comfortable. I'm going to start you on some oral chemo that won't have nearly the same side effects. They should be nothing compared to what you're used to, and they should prevent too many side effects of your cancer. I'm hoping that they will continue to slow the growth of the tumours to give you some more time.'

'How much longer do you think I have?' I asked him.

He shook his head and closed his eyes, pausing to gather himself. 'Bella I'm hoping to give you three more months at best… I'm so sorry.'

It was as I expected. We were stopping treatment, this was it. I had 18 years of life, only one of which was really worth living. Edward and the Cullen's had given me so much in the last year; I would never be able to thank them enough for everything they had done for me.

I took Edward's hand, the look on his face worried me 'Are you ok?' I asked him quietly. He was taking quick shallow breaths; I could tell that he was just barely holding it together.

'Son, it's ok, I will stay with her. Go.' Carlisle quietly reasoned with his son. Edward quickly shook his head, still not speaking.

I pushed on his arm 'Edward, it's ok, I'm ok. Go and do what you have to do and come back when you can.' He looked at me and his eyes betrayed the sadness he was feeling, after a few moments he nodded and ran from the room so fast I didn't see him move.

After he left I sighed and looked at Carlisle 'He'll be ok Bella, he just needs some time.' He said sadly.

'He has been holding on to hope for so long, he blames himself for making me go through treatment which is ridiculous. Now he has to decide whether to let me die or change me.' I told Carlisle.

'What do you want, Bella?' he asked me.

'I don't want to die, but I also don't want to impose myself on Edward for all of eternity. I'm leaving the choice up to him.'

'You know that I will change you if that's what you want? Edward's hesitations have nothing to do with not wanting to be with you, it's because of his belief system. I'm sure you know by now but he believes that with the change you lose your soul, he doesn't believe the sacrifice is worth it- especially for you.' Carlisle explained.

I nodded 'I know, but I also know how he would feel if one of you changed me. He would hold it against you for taking away my soul and his choice.'

It was then that Alice came in, I also noticed that Aiden had left, I assumed to go and break something which was probably not too different to what Edward was doing. She came over to the couch and pulled me into a big hug.

'I'm so sorry Bella.' I could tell that if she could cry she would be right now, she looked devastated.

I shook my head 'I'm fine Alice, but Edward isn't. Can you go find him and talk to him?'

'Alice you stay,' Carlisle said as he rose 'I'm going to go and look for him, I'll talk to him Bella.' He came over and kissed my head.

'Thank you Carlisle.' I croaked, I hated causing everyone so much pain.

'What is he planning, Alice?' I asked as Carlisle closed the front door behind him.

'I'm not sure Bella; he hasn't made up his mind yet. But I do know your decision if I try to change you. If he decides not to change you Bella you have to let me, Edward be damned. I can't let you die.' She pleaded with me.

'He will never forgive you if you do Alice.' I said.

'I can live with that; I can't live with the knowledge that I let you die.' She had taken my hands and turned so she faced me on the couch. I was overcome by her grief.

I nodded but stayed quiet; I didn't know what to say.

Edward came back a few hours later apologizing profusely for running off, Aiden didn't return that night.

A few days later Alice and Carlisle came over around 10am, I was still waking up when they came into my house to find Edward and I on my couch.

'Morning Bella.' Alice said her usual cheerful voice morose.

'What's going on?' Edward asked for me, I was having a bad breathing day, talking was difficult. Right after he asked the question his grip on my hand tightened and his posture stiffened, he had obviously heard what was going on.

'He's coming back Bella.' Carlisle said grimly as they sat across from us.

'Who?' I asked quietly.

'James and his mate Victoria, we have to get you out of here before they see that you're human. There is no faking it now.' Carlisle said with a slight hint of anger.


	13. Chapter 13

_Thanks to keljvt, AlexisFoy27 and Lionnara for the reviews! They mean a lot to me and I do take what you guys say and incorporate it into the story in the future so make sure you review!_

'What's the plan?' Edward asked, resigned.

'Take her back to the cottage, it's so far in the middle of nowhere it's unlikely that they will find her there.' Alice said.

'The four of us will take a private jet out there while Esme, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett stay here to try and mislead them. They will be in Forks in 3 days; we need to leave today to get a good enough head start.' Carlisle explained.

I was too tired to ask any questions, luckily Edward stepped up. 'She's so sick Carlisle, is getting on a plane a good idea?' he asked as he stroked my hand.

'It's not ideal but it's the best chance we have to avoid bloodshed. I will be with her the whole time, I will be bringing all of the medical equipment that she needs with us and will be ready for most eventualities. What do you think, Bella?' Carlisle asked me.

I gave him a thumbs up and said 'sounds good' breathily.

Carlisle and Alice had already packed for themselves and Edward, so Edward and Alice packed for me as Carlisle headed to the airport to load what he was bringing for me as well as their families luggage.

We weren't even flying out of Seattle; Carlisle wanted to be as hard to follow as possible so we flew out of a small private airport outside of Forks where Carlisle had the jet meet us. The airport was so remote you couldn't find it if you looked online, it was just a hanger with two, two-seater planes and a dirt runway. Luckily Carlisle knew the owner.

Five hours after leaving Forks Edward pushed me through the familiar door of the cottage we had spent some weeks in last summer. Edward and I were staying in the cottage and Carlisle and Alice had rented a cottage nearby so that they could be close but also give us space to be together. I felt bad separating them from Esme and Jasper but we were hoping that it would be very short term.

Something about being in that cottage almost made me feel better, it held such good memories that being there just made me feel good. It was February and freezing out so we couldn't go outside without me deoxygenating really quickly, but even just being inside was nicer than being at home. I've been trapped in that house for so long it just makes me feel worse.

The house I once loved had become a place that I associated with being sick.

I had been sleeping a lot, lately- around 12 hours a day. I could tell that everyone was worried, and because of their worry they were also not telling me much of what was going on back home. All I knew was that the nomads had arrived and had not engaged with the Cullen's, they seemed to be actively avoiding them actually. Alice spent a lot of her time on the phone with Jasper telling him what their plans were.

They had already been by my house multiple times trying to find me, hoping that I would return and they were just not starting to realize that I probably wasn't coming back anytime soon. The tracker had begun to trace my scent but so far it wasn't leading him much of anywhere. He now knew for sure that I was a human though which had reinvigorated him, piquing his curiosity.

The three Cullen's that were with me were enjoying the different food options up here at least, I guess that you could get sick of drinking the same type of animals blood. In order to fight the boredom that seclusion in the forest caused the four of us played cards to pass the time and an old N64 that had been left here who knows how long ago.

We lived in this cabin in a kind of bored limbo for 2 weeks as we waited for the nomads to make a move or move on, until one morning when Alice had a vision.

I awoke to Alice frantically speaking to someone in the living room, I didn't hear anyone responding so I assumed she was talking on the phone. I got out of bed slowly as Aiden helped to steady me and walked into the living room dragging the bigger oxygen tank behind me. Edward saw me, took the tank from me and brought me over to the couch.

'Sorry to wake you, love.' He said as he lowered me down to the cushion.

'It's ok, what's going on?' I asked him.

He sighed 'Alice had a vision- the nomads happened upon the airport we flew out of after finding no trace of us at Seattle. They found the owner and decided to torture our destination out of him before killing him. She's trying to get Jasper to get there before it happens but I don't think that he's going to.' he shook his head sadly.

My eyes widened in shock 'They're going to kill him?' he nodded 'Do they know where we are?'

'They know what airport we landed at but they have no idea where we went from there.' He said trying to reassure me.

'Ugh!' Alice yelled in frustration.

'They couldn't save him?' Carlisle asked sadly.

'No, I was too late! Again!' She said angrily.

'Don't blame yourself Alice, these two are good, they seem to have a talent for staying just out of everyone's reach, including your visions. They're quick and make decisions on the fly, there's nothing you could have done.' Carlisle soothed her.

'Jasper and Esme are following them and are going to keep a close eye on where they go; once they get here they're going to try to deter them if they get close. If they can't then it's five against two at least.' She said.

'Wait, what? No! You guys can't fight them! Someone just died because of me; I can't let any of you get hurt as well!' I said, mortified, running out of breath.

'We'll do what we can to keep them away but if they are so determined to get to you then it will have to come to a fight. Running again isn't an option; we will have to stand our ground.' Carlisle said.

'Don't worry Bella, no matter what, we can deal with it.' Edward said. I pulled my legs up onto the couch and wrapped my arms around my knees, ignoring the pain in my chest.

'Seriously Bella, Esme and Jasper will cover up the holes in my visions and if it comes to a fight they won't be able to take on the five of us and Aiden.' Alice said doing what she does best, making me feel stupid for worrying.

That night Edward and I were lying in bed, he was silent and lost in thought, I waited patiently for him to put to words what he was thinking. He finally did after a few minutes.

'I don't know what to do.' He said so quietly that had I been sleeping I never would have heard him.

'About what?' I said just as quietly.

He sighed and took my hand 'You. I don't know what to do about you Bella… It's an impossible decision.'

'What do you want Edward?' I asked him.

'You, forever.' He said immediately.

'I want that too, there's only one way to have that. You need to let go of your belief that my soul will be taken from me and know that you aren't damning me.' I said.

'That is easier said than done, my guilt is consuming me.' He said closing his eyes.

'There's nothing to feel guilty about Edward, whatever your decision is, I will support it. I love you no matter what, don't stress too much, you'll know what to do at the end.' I said half whispering, talking really was draining me.

'The end...' he trailed off and was quiet for a moment. 'If I live a million years I will never deserve you.' He said, I frowned and went to respond but he stopped me.

'Save your strength, you can argue with me tomorrow. Sleep Isabella.'

I sighed but didn't argue 'Goodnight Edward.'

'Goodnight love.'

Esme and Jasper landed at the airport early the next morning but couldn't risk coming to us in case they were followed. Alice and the two of them were in constant contact over what stretched into a week. I felt absolutely awful about them being outside chasing two vampires around through the woods.

Three days after Esme and Jasper left Forks, Rosalie and Emmett left to be near us as well. They stayed in a motel close enough to where we were that they could run here if they needed to. They had stayed in Forks long enough to realize that the nomads wouldn't be returning, so they came to us to lend a hand.

It took them a week and a half to finally come within a worryingly close proximity of us. I woke in the morning to find the Cullen's gathered in the living room, all seven of them. I had had a seizure the night before and this was my first time waking since so I figured I was still confused.

'What's going on?' I asked groggily, clinging to the frame of the door. The closest person to me was Esme who hurriedly got up and helped me and the oxygen tank over to the chair she was just sitting it. Edward had risen to get to me but sat back down once Esme had come to me first.

'I guess that they've found us.' I said quietly.

'They'll be here by this evening,' Alice said 'don't worry Bella, it's two versus seven, they don't stand a chance.'

'Is that what you have seen?' I asked her.

'It is.' She smiled. 'The biggest problem we could face is that they turn and run although I don't see them doing it, but my vision keeps changing as if they aren't sure what they want to do yet.'

'Some of us are going to wait a couple of kilometers out in the forest in areas where Alice doesn't see them coming from so that we can surround them when they get here.' Esme said as she stroked the inch of hair on my head that had grown since I had stopped treatment.

The Cullen's continued to talk strategy while I leaned against Esme who sat on the arm of the chair I was in. I was struggling to stay awake even though I had just risen from a full night's sleep- the effect of last night's seizure still weighing on me.

I didn't realize that I had dozed off until I woke to the sound of Edwards voice and his hand cool on mine. Even with his gentle ministrations I still startled awake as he shushed me.

'You're ok.' He said so gently. 'Sorry to wake you Bella.'

'Don't be silly, sorry I fell asleep.' I said annoyed with myself.

He shook his head 'You needed it- here.' He held his hand out to me, in it sat five small pills which I took in my and threw back reached for the water he had in his hand then swallowed them down.

'Will you eat?' he asked quietly.

'I'm not hungry.' I said shaking my head, I knew that it hurt Edward when I refused to eat and, I usually at least tried but after having a seizure I didn't even had a semblance of an appetite.

To my relief he just nodded. 'Smoothie?'

I nodded 'Sure.' I could at least try.

He smiled and leaned in, cool lips kissing me on the forehead before he went to the kitchen to make it for me.

Some of the Cullen's were out hunting while the few that stayed were milling about in and around the cottage; I wasn't really paying attention- I was listening to Aiden. I knew him better than I knew anyone and I knew that he was full of anxiety.

 _Aiden?_ I called out mentally.

He turned his attention back to me. _What's wrong?_ I asked him.

He showed me his memories of James and Victoria and then showed me myself. _I'm worried too, but not for me- for them. Something isn't sitting right, why would two vampires go into a fight so outnumbered? At the least they know that there are four of them and me, but they have to know that the rest of the family would join us?_

Aiden agreed; _we're missing something,_ he said to me in a rare use of words then showed me myself again- the image dripping with his anxiety.

 _If you stay with me I'll be ok Aiden._ I told him, my thoughts full of trust.

'Hey.' Edward said passing me a glass with the smoothie he had made in it, he was crouched in front of me, I didn't know how long he had been there for.

'Sorry.' I said taking it from him. 'Thank you.' I said smiling.

'Are you two alright?' he asked having heard Aiden's side of the conversation I assumed.

'Yeah, just worried.' I said.

 _We're missing something, it doesn't make sense._ Aiden said- it was rare for him to speak, even rarer to speak to someone that wasn't me.

I tried to drink the smoothie that Edward had made for me while the two of them spoke. 'All we can do is trust Alice's visions, we can handle them Aiden.'

 _She has missed things before._ Aiden said.

'She has, and if she missed something this time then we will adapt. We can handle it Aiden- but not without your help. Can I depend on you to put a shield around the cottage to stop anyone unwanted from entering? Will you help me to keep Bella safe?' Edward asked.

Aiden was slightly annoyed by this _I've been keeping her safe her entire life, I'm not going to stop now._ It was the longest sentence I'd heard from him in a long time, he must have been passionate- I laughed. It was one short laugh followed by a long stream of coughs. When I was done Edward picked me up and took me to the couch where I leaned into him.

'Please don't worry, we will keep you safe and we will be safe. I promise.' I nodded into his shoulder; I was too breathless to speak.

oOo

Evening began to fall and the Cullen's took their places. Esme, Emmett and Rosalie surrounded the cottage from a few kilometres out all in different directions. Carlisle, Alice and Jasper all gathered outside to meet Victoria and James as they approached, behind them Aiden set up a half sphere shield encompassing the cottage. Edward waited inside with me; as much as he tried to hide it I could tell he was nervous as well.

We waited in silence for many minutes until Edward gasped and whispered 'So many…'

'Edward, what?' I asked, panicked.

'The female, Victoria. She created one new vampire who then created an army. You were right of course, something was off- there are 16 new ones plus Victoria and James.' Edward said voice full of fear.

'Edward…' I said frozen with fear.

He held my face between his hands 'Bella, we will be ok. They're newborns, young, inexperienced. We know how to fight, ok? But that is what I have to do now, I have to go and help them fight. I won't be far and Aiden is going to keep the house protected- you will be absolutely safe.'

'I'm not worried about me…' I said barely above a whisper. 'Edward please, be safe, you can't let anyone get hurt because of me.'

'No one is getting hurt, Bella. I love you ok? I will be back soon.' He kissed me long and hard- almost desperately and it worried me. 'I'll be right back, I promise.' And he ran out the front door, Aiden opened the shield and closed it behind him. Aiden held the shield as he flew outside to look and see what was going on.

I closed my eyes and watched through his eyes as the army of newborns approached. Their eyes darted back and forth between the four Cullen's, some looked nervous some triumphant at the fact that they only had to fight four vampires to get to me. About twenty yards behind the group of new vampires stood James and Victoria.

James looked excited, but Victoria looked scared, constantly watching the forest behind them, expecting the reinforcements that were out there. I was terrified, they were massively outnumbered and there was nothing that I could do but watch.

'James, Victoria. What a surprise seeing you and your _friends_ so soon, what can we do for you?' Carlisle spoke calmly.

'Give us the girl Carlisle, it's all we want no one needs to get hurt.' I heard James speak quietly through Aiden.

'You know that that isn't going to happen, she is part of our family. Where is Laurent? Did he not want to take part in this?' Carlisle said venom in his voice.

'He was intrigued by your lifestyle and decided to join your friends in Alaska.' James said.

'I'm glad for that.' Carlisle said. 'Again, we won't give up the girl. Even if you get through all of us you aren't getting into that house. This is a futile attempt James.'

'We'll see.' He said with a smile as the large group of newborns all rushed my family at once. As soon as they descended, the four Cullen's outside of the cottage, Esme, Emmett and Rosalie all attacked from behind. Almost immediately after the fight started I couldn't see Victoria, it was seventeen on seven. Esme, Carlisle and Rosalie were all fighting two vampires each while Alice, Emmett and Jasper were all taking on three.

Edward was of course fighting James along with a new born. Jasper and Emmett both managed to take down one each before Jasper jumped in to help Alice, and Emmett went to help Rosalie and Esme, the two groups taking on the newborns as a team. Edward got the upper hand on the newborn that he was fighting and tore the young man's head off leaving him alone with James.

The Cullen's caught and beheaded two more newborns as well as tore the arm off of another before they came to a stalemate. Alice had been separated from the group again, Jasper unable to get over to her without endangering himself and leaving himself open to attack.

I watched in horror for 20 minutes, it was when Alice got hit- breaking the bones in her right arm, nearly severing her arm that I couldn't watch anymore.

 _Aiden, we have to help._ He refused showing me images of me comatose, sick, dying.

 _I'm dying anyways! It's only a matter of weeks, if that! I'm not worth them getting hurt over Aiden, you know me, you know that I need to help them._ He deliberated for a few seconds completely torn and the assented.

I crossed my legs on the couch and closed my eyes reaching out with my mind. The two of us threw out a field towards the fight happening in the clearing by the house. First we seized and froze everyone where they stood and then we began to separate out the Cullen's unfreezing them. It took them a second to figure out what was happening, but only a second.

Immediately they were on the newborns, ripping, biting and tearing them to pieces. Edward ripped the head off of James, threw him into the growing pile and then sprinted for the house where he tried to get in but the shield was still up.

 _Lower it._ It was a struggle even to think that thought, my strength was draining every second we held the vampires where they were. I was barely aware of Edward bursting into the cottage and shaking me.

'-op Bella! Bella, stop! They're dead you did it!' he broke through my consciousness and I collapsed sideways off the couch but of course he caught me.

I felt weird; I felt light- almost like I was floating. I didn't have the energy to open my eyes, all I had was my hearing. I heard Edward call to Carlisle; I could hear his beautiful voice full of panic. It shouldn't sound that way.

'Bella, can you hear me? Open your eyes sweetheart.' Said Carlisle… I thought.

I felt weird, like I was no longer connected to my body I was at peace- until I began to suffocate. I felt my body buck using the last remains of energy I had.

'Carlisle, do something!' Edward yelled at his father.

'Bella, breathe, come on, take a breath- you can do it.' I heard Carlisle's seemingly calm voice say.

'Please Bella, just take a breath! I love you, don't do this.' Edward.

The suffocating feeling was intense but quick, after I failed over and over again to take in a breath, a kind of peace settled over me. I could feel Aiden with me the whole time, with me right until the end.

And then the pain started.

 _Please favourite and review!_


	14. Chapter 14

_It's been a while... I'm so sorry for the huge delay in posting- I swear I haven't forgotten about this story! I've had a lot going on with my sisters wedding and such. I do still have a few chapters written so hopefully I will get these out much faster than the last break I took. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!_

The pain seared through me, starting at my throat, then my wrists then everywhere. My entire body was on fire. I screamed once unable to stop myself before I heard Edward speaking to me, trying to soothe me. I clamped my mouth shut not wanting to hurt him or Aiden any more than seeing me in pain already was but I couldn't help the occasional whimper.

Through the heat and the scorching pain I never felt alone, Aiden shared my pain as much as I tried to block him out to spare him what I was going through but I couldn't do it. I was weak and in agony and he was strong, the other problem with him feeling what I felt was that Edward could feel it through him. I tried to stay as still and quiet as possible to stop from hurting them more.

The pain was everything, it didn't cease, and I didn't grow numb to it. It burned and burned until I figured there was nothing left to me, I had to have become a pile of ash. And yet I could feel Edwards hand inside of my clenched fist, grounding me, reminding me that I was alive.

I couldn't move or speak; all I could do was listen. From what I could tell I was in a bedroom, still at the cottage by the smell of it. The more time passed the more I could hear but I was fairly certain that I was alone in the room with Aiden and Edward. I couldn't remember either of them leaving at all since this started.

Every now and then I would hear people speaking, either in the other room or when they would come in to talk to Edward.

'How is she?' I heard Carlisle quietly ask at one point.

'The same, she still hasn't moved or made a sound since the beginning.' I could hear the worry in his voice.

'Listen to her heart Edward, its strong. She is going to make it through this with no problems.' His father assured him.

'She's in _agony_ Carlisle. Why hasn't she moved?' his tortured voice asked.

'I don't know for sure, but I think it's because she is trying to spare you from experiencing it with her. She doesn't want to worry you more than you already are.' Carlisle explained to his son quietly. 'You will be perfect Bella, we all love you.' He said even quieter kissing me on the forehead. A single tear escaped me, I couldn't help it.

It felt like days later when I heard Alice come in and sit next to Edward. 'I don't know why you're so worried Edward, I can see it, she's going to be unbelievable.' I could hear the smile in her voice.

Time lost all meaning, it felt like I was burning for years, I just wanted it to stop, I wanted to die. But of course Aiden was there to relay my thoughts to Edward who spoke to me, soothing me, reassuring me that it was almost over. I clung to that, I had no idea how much time had passed but I knew I had to trust him.

 _How… much… longer?_ I struggled to think to Aiden, who relayed it to Edward.

I felt him squeeze my hand at the first conscious thought I've had in what felt like years.

'Soon Bella, I think just a few more hours ok? You're doing amazing' He said.

I whimpered, the thought of going through this for a few more _hours_ was unbearable.

I felt him kiss my forehead 'I'm sorry sweetheart, I'm here, Aiden is here, we will take care of you I promise.' He said quickly, desperately, pleading with me. I couldn't let him worry any more than he was.

 _It's okay._ I thought to them. _I'm okay._

I felt his head rest on my arm, all I wanted to do was hold him but I couldn't. If I so much as moved I knew that I would lose it- I would scream and I would never stop. And so I endured.

'It will be any minute now.' I heard Alice say.

Almost immediately after she said that I felt the pain pulling away from my hands and feet slowly traveling up my legs and arms, but instead of vanishing, the pain was moving to my chest increasing as it went. As the pain travelled to my heart it began to beat faster.

'Listen Edward, it's happening.' Carlisle said.

I couldn't enjoy the cool relief of the lack of pain in my body because of the compounded pain in my heart. It was racing so hard now that it felt as though it would break through my chest, it was the worst pain I had ever felt and I finally broke my composure. As the pain hit a crescendo my back arched off of the bed and I let out one tortured scream.

I could feel someone take each of my hands and I could hear them speaking to me but their words meant nothing to me; I couldn't even comprehend their words. The only sound in the room was my laboured breathing and the sound of my heart jackhammering in my chest. The fire finally turned into an explosion of pain in my heart which gave a hollow thud followed by two stutters and then one last weak beat before it stopped.

The silence was deafening, there was no sound, not even any breathing- including my own.

I opened my eyes.

It was as though I was seeing for the first time. Everything was so crisp and clear, I could see everything. The particles of dust in the air caught in the sunlight streaming through the window. The detail in everything was unbelievable; I never could have imagined that the world looked this way. I gasped just at the beauty of what I could see in front of my face as I lay where I was and as I did something about the act felt wrong- I realized that it was because I didn't need the oxygen.

While I didn't need the oxygen I found that I _liked_ it. I didn't need to breath but when I did I could taste the air, taste the dust in the air, the wood of the cabin, sweet smells such as lavender, hyacinth and pear. Along with the taste, I could hear _everything_ , the wind through the trees outside, the slapping of flesh on water- I figured that it must have been a fish breaching the surface.

Very faintly I could hear the rhythmic whooshing of cars driving by on the freeway and briefly thought to myself that that couldn't be right- we were nowhere near the freeway. It was then that I felt someone squeeze my hand lightly, it wasn't cool like Edwards was- it was the same temperature as mine. I didn't know who it was and I panicked jumping up off of the bed landing on my feet on the opposite side of the person touching me- a feral snarl ripped its way out of my throat.

What I noticed was that there was almost no movement that happened. In one second I was on the bed and a split second later I was on the other side of the bed looking at a very worried Edward with his hand stretched out towards me across the bed. I had landed next to Alice on the other side of the bed but Jasper had reached out and grabbed Alice pushing her behind himself. Protecting her from something- _me_ I realized.

It was then that I realized that the touch I didn't recognize _was_ Edwards. _Of course_ it wasn't cold; I was just as cold as he was now- I had died too. I straightened up out of my defensive crouch and truly looked at Edward for the first time in my life. He was somehow more beautiful than I ever could have imagined- I may as well have never seen him before. Turning to look at the rest of the Cullen's I noticed it was the same experience- they were all so much more extraordinary to look at except for one exception.

As a human I could barely notice Jaspers scars but as a vampire it was his most obvious feature, his entire body- especially his neck- were covered in scars from being attacked by vampires. It was unbelievable that he had survived so many bites.

'Bella, love?' I spun my head around to look back at Edward but as I did so I caught site of something in the upper corner of the room by the dresser and my attention snapped back to that. It was a blue aura pulsating- growing and shrinking, moving slightly in reaction to something- me looking at it I assumed. It took me a moment to understand.

'Aiden?' I asked it quietly and he moved in what looked like surprise. 'I can see you.' I said aloud to him and heard him gently reach for my consciousness with his. Even though I didn't want to admit it I was afraid that something would happen to him when I died or at least or connection would be severed.

I never imagined that dying would add _more_ to our relationship- that it would allow me to see him for the first time.

'I know that this is overwhelming Bella, but everything is ok- you're safe' I heard Carlisle say to me gently. I looked over at the family again and saw Alice grinning a huge grin at me, teeth shining brilliantly in the light from the window.

I was so overwhelmed, I didn't know what to do and I began to slightly hyperventilate. It was then that Edward edged around the side of the bed towards me, hands up in front of him showing me that he meant no harm. As he reached me he stretched his hand up to the side of my face tracing my left cheekbone igniting sparks as his fingers moved.

'It's ok love, you're safe, Aiden is safe.' I looked up into his eyes 'You're safe, ok?' he repeated and I nodded before I pulled him into a hug. The hug lasted only a few seconds before I heard Edward's strained voice say 'Carefully Bella.' I immediately released and stepped back mortified that I had hurt him- that I _could_ hurt him.

'Sorry.' I said, mortified but he stepped with me smiling.

'No need to be sorry, you're just a bit stronger than me at the moment.' He stroked my cheek again sending an overwhelming urge to be with him- touch him. I was confused, I thought that these feelings wouldn't come back for a long time; I thought that my hunger- my need to kill would take over everything. Don't get me wrong- the burning need in my throat was there but after being sick and in pain for so long it was easy to ignore.

He watched me think for a moment before asking 'What's the matter Bella?'

I just shook my head 'I love you.'

'As I love you.' He said, a brilliant smile spreading across his face. I could tell he was listening to someone before he nodded and said 'You must be incredibly thirsty, would you like to go hunting?'

'Wait!' Alice said quickly leaving the room and then coming back in with a floor length mirror that I don't remember being in the cottage. 'You promised I could be there when she saw herself for the first time, she might see her reflection!'

Edward just sighed as Alice brought the mirror up in front of us and I saw myself for the first time. I gasped, I looked so different from before when I was ill. My face had filled back out I looked healthy again but the most shocking thing that I had been too pre-occupied to notice was-

'My hair.' I said as I reached up to touch my long brown hair that once again reached down until it rested on my chest. If I could cry it probably would have brought me to tears, I had missed it so much. Bringing myself to look back at my face I noticed that I not only looked healthy, I looked _beautiful_. I could now hold my own against Alice and Esme, I looked at Edward who was watching me his face unreadable.

'Disappointed?' I asked him and to my horror he nodded. I stepped away from him hurt playing across my face but he didn't let go of my hand and laughed.

'Not like _that._ ' He said. 'I was hoping that once we were both vampires I might be able to read your thoughts but still- nothing.' I was relieved that that was all he was disappointed about.

'Alright, alright. We're going. Jasper is getting a little bit tense.' Edward said.

I looked at Jasper confusedly 'He doesn't understand how you're controlling your emotions and thirst so well Bella- you shouldn't be able to.'

'It's gotta break some time.' Emmett said laughing and I glared at him. The Cullen's cleared out of the doorway and Edward and I ran from the house and into the forest.


	15. Chapter 15

I could finally understand how Edward never hit trees while running- everything was a blur to my human eyes but as a vampire everything was crystal clear no matter how quickly I moved. Running, jumping even hunting -this was easy, second nature to me.

After Edward and I had hunted down and drained a bull moose and a few deer we were running back home together when I caught scent of something irresistible. I ran towards the source without thinking, the most basic instinct drew me to the scent, it wasn't until I caught sight of the campsite that I understood what was happening and I stopped dead in my tracks holding my breath.

Edward flew past me not realizing that I had stopped but appeared in front of me moments later.

'I have to get out of here.' I said with the rest of the breath I was holding.

'Can you?' I heard Edward ask as I turned and ran in the opposite direction.

We arrived back at the cottage in less than a minute when Edward put his hands on either side of my face.

'Bella, how did you _do_ that?' Edward asked flabbergasted, I was confused.

'What do you mean?' I asked as Carlisle and Jasper came outside to meet us.

'What happened, Edward?' Jasper asked warily.

He let go of my face and turned to face his father and his brother 'I was careless, we came within range of a human campsite-'

'Edward…' Carlisle interrupted chastising his son.

'I know, I know but listen. Bella smelled the humans, began hunting them until she realized that she was hunting people. She stopped mid hunt, turned and ran away.' Edward said exultant.

'What? Bella how did you do that?' Jasper asked me intently. The way everyone was looking at me made me incredibly uncomfortable and I backed up.

'I- I don't know, I just did. I didn't want to kill a human so I ran away. Is that bad?' The way they were looking at me made me feel as though I had done something wrong.

'No, Bella. No, not at all, you did the right thing it's just that you shouldn't be able to do what you did. Not as a newborn.' Carlisle explained delicately.

'I don't understand…' Jasper said walking away with his hands on his head.

I looked back at Edward and he smiled pulling me into a hug. 'You're amazing Bella, don't worry.' I smiled hesitantly back at him. 'Let's go inside.' He said to me.

As we walked back towards the house Emmett walked outside holding my cell phone in his right hand.

'Bella, catch.' He said smirking at me as he pulled back and threw my phone as far as he could back towards the forest. Thinking back to the last time he stole my phone I knew what he was doing and while I could have run into the forest to grab it I decided to humour him- I was curious too after all.

My gaze followed the phone arching up towards the sky, it may as well have been moving in slow motion for all I could tell. My arm reached up towards it as if to pluck it from the air even though it was 50 feet away now. I reached for the power I knew I had as a human and felt that it had changed now as a vampire.

It had evolved and grown, before it was so limited but now it seemed limitless. The energy seemed to flow from my fingertips into the air towards my phone halting it almost immediately and then I shifted the energy, this time pulling it back towards me. The phone hurtled towards the earth as quickly as it had flown away and just before it reached my hand I slowed it down so that it wouldn't shatter once it hit my hand.

After grabbing it out of my hand I picked up a fist sized rock off of the ground with my mind and threw it at Emmett who still stood in the doorway, he snatched it out of the air before it hit him and he exclaimed 'Finally!'

'Amazing, your abilities have become so much stronger. We didn't know if they would vanish completely or if they would manifest into something more.' Carlisle commented.

'It's much easier now, and definitely more powerful.' I told him.

Emmett and Rosalie left to head back to Forks after this and after making sure that all of the newborns had been burned. The plan was for Edward and I to stay here for a couple of weeks and then drive home, I definitely couldn't be trusted in an airplane full of humans. Jasper and Carlisle didn't want to leave until they tested that I could be left alone just with Edward.

'When we came here Bella I had prepared for any eventuality so I brought blood in case you needed a blood transfusion. If I were to open the bag in front of a newborn they would become feral and immediately attack me to get to the blood. We want to test and see if you are able tolerate the smell or get away from it. If you can then we will be able to leave you and Edward here, can we try.' Carlisle explained.

I shook my head and took a step back 'I don't want to hurt you Carlisle.'

'You won't love, we're all here.' Edward said wrapping his arms around me 'I know you can do it.'

'Will everyone stay between us?' I asked and Jasper, Esme and Alice all stepped between Carlisle and I.

'Of course Bella, we trust you.' Esme said encouragingly.

'You've got this Bella.' Alice said.

'Hang on to me.' I told Edward and he tightened his arms around me. 'Ok Carlisle, I'm ready.'

'When I open this you don't need to stay and smell it, running away will prove the point just as well. If she goes to move backwards Edward let her go.' We both nodded and Carlisle opened the bag of blood, reflexively I held my breath.

'Breathe Bella, its ok.' Edward murmured and I took a shallow breath in through my nose. The smell hit me right away, it was both the most appealing and painful thing I had ever smelt. It was as though the scent of the blood had set my throat on fire but the only thing to put the fire out was to drink the blood.

My first instinct was to pounce, to destroy anything and everything in my way to get to the blood and indeed the first thing I did was try to shift into a crouch, a snarl building up in my chest. It took less than a second to come back to myself and realize it was my family that I was willing to fight through to get to the human blood in the bag.

Mortified with myself I threw myself backwards out of Edward's arms and into the front yard where I inhaled fresh air trying to calm the burning in my throat.

'Bella! Are you ok?' Edward said running out after me.

'Yeah, I'm fine.' I said grabbing my throat almost gasping for air.

'Bella that was amazing!' Alice said as the family ran out to see me.

'Didn't feel amazing, I wanted to kill all of you to get to the blood.' I said ashamed.

'Why didn't you?' Jasper asked me quizzically.

'I couldn't hurt any of you, just the thought of it snapped me out of it.' I told him.

'Amazing.' Carlisle said coming outside last. 'Have you ever seen anyone like her?' Carlisle asked Jasper.

'Never. Bella I have never seen a newborn with as much control as you- it's unheard of.' Jasper said awestruck.

'Doesn't feel like I'm in control, it feels like my body and mind want two totally different things.' I said frustrated.

'Trust me Bella, you're doing amazingly well.' Jasper said and I couldn't help but think of his reaction to the smell of my blood a few months ago- maybe I was doing well.

Jasper, Alice, Carlisle and Esme all left after that, trusting me not to murder a human or Edward if we were left alone and for the next two months him and I lived together in the cottage. I was beyond thankful that everyone else had left because the physical need that I had felt for Edward for so long not only didn't diminish after I was turned but in fact if increased exponentially.

Edward and I couldn't be together intimately when I was human because of how fragile I was but nothing was stopping us now- we were making up for lost time. I spent the first two months of my new life in this cottage with Edward and he showed me what it was to be a vampire.

After living in bliss, free of pain for the first time in a long time, we received a phone call from my past.

'It's Cole.' I said one evening as my phone rang. 'What does he know about me?'

'He knows that you were very sick, I never told him that you passed though.' Edward said.

I thought for a moment 'Could be important… maybe we omit the last bit?'

He nodded, 'Answer it.'

'Cole?' I asked.

'Bella! How are you? You sound good.' He sounded surprised, I must have been in a bad way last time he contacted Edward.

'I'm much better, I've been a part of a clinical trial and its working really well, and I'll be in remission in no time.' I lied easily.

'Bella, that's amazing to hear. I'm so glad, I've been so worried.'

'Thanks Cole, I really appreciate it. So what's up?' I asked.

'A lot unfortunately, I quit the DPA.' I sat bolt upright.

'What?! What happened?!' As much as he hated it there he stayed to keep me safe and keep an eye on what was going on there. If he had quit it meant that something seriously wrong had happened. Edward rubbed my arm soothing me while I spoke with Cole.

'Bella, they found a replacement.' He said sadly.

'A replacement?' I didn't understand.

'A replacement… for you.'

'No.' I growled.

'She's a three year old girl; her mother came to the DPA looking for help after she noticed some strange things happening with her daughter. It turns out this woman was homeless when she gave birth and she was living with three men, none of which were related to the child when she came to the DPA.' My stomach flip-flopped as he said this. 'The DPA requested to gain custody of the child after filing a complaint with CPS and of course the woman couldn't afford a lawyer while the DPA has the best- they gained custody of the child.'

I felt strangled. 'Bella, are you still there?' I heard Cole say as Edward crouched in front of me.

'Bella?' Edward asked quietly putting his hands on my knees.

'Cole,' I choked out 'what is the girl's name?'

'Zoey.' My heart plummeted.

'Cole… tell me how to contact her mother. I need you to find out, please.' I begged him.

'Bella, are you ok?' Cole asked.

'Cole, this is so important. Please tell me how to get into contact with her, you tell me where she is and I'll fix this, ok?' I pleaded.

'Ok Bella,' he said cautiously hearing the edge in my voice 'I'll get it and call you back, ok?'

'Thank you Cole. Talk to you soon.' I hung up the phone.

'Bella, what is it?' Edward's voice was low and worried. My breathing was coming in in short shallow gasps.

I got up off the couch grabbed the vase off of the coffee table and smashed it against the wall screaming an obscenity. I was too busying wallowing in self-pity that I barely noticed Edward cradling my head between his hands.

'Please, love, tell me what's going on.' I looked up at him, his eyes burned with worry.

'I'm sorry.' I thought I was done worrying him now that I wasn't human; it was one thing after another.

'There are a lot of things that you still don't know about me Edward…' I didn't know where to start.


	16. Chapter 16

_Sorry for the huge delay in chapters, in all honesty I've lost interest in writing the story but there's nothing worse than an abandoned story so I am pushing through! The chapters will take a while to come out but they will come out. Thanks to everyone who has favourited and followed including; my own hell, phantmrose, jmann94, fangirl35, Cmilo2277, xouxou, Scutler, LiteratureSoccerEnthusiast and anyone else I may have missed! Thanks for your continued support for my story!_

He pulled me back to the couch and sat me down 'I have forever to learn, tell me what's upsetting you.'

I closed my eyes deciding where to begin, all I wanted to do was move but I couldn't until Cole called me back. 'A little more than three years ago I ran away from the DPA for obvious reasons, I managed to stay missing for a while. I didn't know anyone outside of the DPA and I had nowhere to go and no money so I ended up homeless for a few months.

'It was the middle of winter and I found myself in a bad way after weeks on the street in the freezing cold.' I decided to spare Edward the details of my near death encounter after seeing the worry on his face. 'Many people passed me unconscious on the street- that was until Stan found me. He was one of the kindest people I have ever met. Stan had nothing to share but everything he had he shared with me. Stan lived under an overpass in a homeless compound that he constructed with another man named Walter. Stan nursed me back to health and when I woke up I met the rest of the people that lived there.

'After Stan and Walter built their home out of anything they could find they took in Jimmy- a heroin addict, and Tuesday. Tuesday had escaped a violent relationship with her boyfriend and when I met her she was 9 months pregnant. I lived with them for another few weeks getting money to feed ourselves as well as Tuesday and Jimmy as he went through withdrawals.

'One night I woke up to a lot of noise, Tuesday was in labour. Stan and I broke into a drug store while Walter and Jimmy got her into an abandoned house. After hours of labour I delivered Tuesday's baby for her. Late that night the smell of smoke woke me up, there was smoke pouring under the door of the room Tuesday and I slept in.

'Everyone got out of the house except for me. I _would_ have been able to jump out and had Aiden break the fall but right as I found an open window, something exploded behind me throwing me through a second story window to the ground below. I fell the two stories hitting my head on the frozen ground sustaining a severe head injury.

'I woke up in a CIA hospital a few months later.' I finished, the end of the story was actually told to me later on, I don't remember any of it- I barely remember the fire.

'That's unbelievable Bella, why did you never tell me?' Edward asked.

'It's never exactly been the best time to say 'Hey Edward, I was homeless at 15, I delivered a baby, and I nearly died in a fire." I said cocking an eyebrow.

He laughed 'I get your point, but I'm confused. I still don't understand why you're upset, or what this story has to do with anything.'

I sighed 'You could hear what Cole said, yes?' He nodded.

'The baby I delivered, Tuesday's baby- her name was Zoey.'

'The DPA has Tuesday's baby?' he asked.

'That's my guess, I have no idea how to reach Stan or Tuesday or anyone and for all they know I'm dead seeing as how the last time they saw me I nearly was.' I could feel myself starting to lose it, Edward could sense it too.

'Come here.' He said to me quietly, pulling me into his arms. I took some deep breaths.

'Whether it is Zoey or not, there's no way that I'm leaving another girl with them to be raised the way I was Edward. I have to get her out.'

He kissed the top of my head and spoke into my hair 'I know you do love, we'll get her out.'

Cole called me back the next morning giving me the address of my homeless family. The four of them were living together in a small two-bedroom apartment in Virginia. It was going to be a 15 hour drive to get there and Edward and I were hastily packing.

'It's only been a few weeks Bella, are you sure you can handle being around humans so closely?' Edward asked.

'No, but I really don't have a choice.' I said stuffing clothes into a suitcase angrily, of course it was them. Why did it have to be them? He came up behind me wrapping his arms around me.

'It's ok Bella, we'll get her out, we'll bring her back to her mom.'

I shook my head out of frustration 'How did this happen? I delivered her; I know that she wasn't like me. No twin.'

'I don't know Bella, maybe it's just something that happens, or maybe it's because you were involved in the birth or maybe she had a twin that died early on in the gestational period. The point is that you'll never know, don't stress about it.' He told me.

'I know, you're right. But why _them_? I'm a curse on everyone that knows me; you should get out while you can.'

I felt him chuckle as he held me 'I think it's a bit too late for that but I'll keep it in mind.'

I turned around to face him, wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him down to kiss me 'We have to go, I don't want her spending any more time with them than necessary.'

'Ok,' he kissed me one more time on the forehead 'let's go.'

oOo

I was fairly certain that they thought I was dead, and with me being missing for so long it wouldn't be fair if I just called, also I selfishly wanted to see them. And so we drove there for 15 hours straight. Along the way Edward taught me to be human again, all the little nuances of being human that were unconscious then but have to be relearned. He taught me to blink, fidget, not stand for too long- so many little things that would weird humans out or make them uncomfortable.

After an entire day of driving we arrived at the address that Cole had given me, and after just wanting to _get_ here I found myself frozen with apprehension. I physically couldn't get out of the car.

'Are you ok?' Edward asked.

'No, I'm a coward.' I groaned.

He laughed and grabbed my hand 'You aren't a coward, if you weren't nervous I would think that you were crazy. Bella, you can do this, I'll be with you.'

I nodded, I knew he was right 'Please make sure that I don't murder anyone.'

'Never, just make sure to breath as little as possible- just enough for you to be able to talk. But also-'

'Make it look like I'm breathing, yeah I remember.' I cut him off. 'Alright, let's get this over with.' I went to open the door when he stopped.

'Oh, hang on a second I almost forgot because I'm used to it.' He said reaching into his duffle bag in the back seat.

'What?' I asked confused.

'Here-' he pulled out what looked like a contact lens case and passed it to me. I opened it and it was indeed coloured contact lenses.

'I don't think that they will believe the human thing if they see your eyes.' He said amusedly.

'What would I do without you…' I said putting the brown contact lenses in. 'How do I look?'

He studied me for a moment 'Hmm, they're nothing like your original colour, too dull. But they'll do.'

I laughed 'Ready now?'

He got out of the car and was at my door in a second opening it. 'After you, my dear.'

'Thanks' I laughed and we walked together towards the apartment complex.

Thankfully it was an overcast day but I could see the sun was almost at its highest in the sky, I figured it was about 11am. It was a Sunday as well so I hoped that they would be home. The building they lived in was old and run down enough that there was no lock or buzzer system on the front door, we just walked inside.

'Did Alice get everything ready?' I asked him as we walked.

'Yes, all of the necessary plans have been made, everything is ready. Don't worry.' He said.

They lived in a low-rise, only three levels and they lived on the top floor. We stopped outside their door and I paused there for a few seconds, building up the courage when Edward knocked for me.

'Edward.' I hissed and he laughed.

'Coming!' I heard a man yell from inside the apartment- it sounded like Stan. Had I a beating heart it would have leapt at his voice. I could hear him crashing towards the door before he pulled it open and froze looking at me. Edward stood off to the side so that I took up all of his attention. I could hear his breath hitch and his eyes go wide, he looked as though he was looking at a ghost and I gave him a shy smile.

'Hi Stan.' I said quietly.

'Bella?' he whispered and I nodded.

'Yeah, it's me.' I smiled sheepishly at him.

'But… how?' he asked.

'Stan who is it?' I heard Walter's gruff voice ask from another room and he ignored him.

'Bella, we thought you were dead… they _told us_ you were dead.' He sounded mortified.

I nodded 'I assumed as much, but they lied. I'm sorry I haven't come to see you before this, I just found out where you had all gone.'

'Bella, we visited you every day when you were in the coma, we were going to bring you home with us when you got better but they told us that you had died.' I realized he felt _guilty_ , if I could cry I would have. I heard heavy footsteps approaching.

'Stan, what's the m-' Walter appeared in the hallway and stopped dead just as Stan had. The older dark skinned man stared at me for a moment 'Bella?' he asked.

'Yeah, it's really me.' I smiled at him and he surprised me by pushing past Stan and pulling me up into a huge hug. I guess my disguise looked better than it felt.

'It's a goddamn miracle.' He whispered into my hair as he held me.

'I missed you guys.' I said as he set me back on my feet and I was immediately pulled up into another hug by Stan who had been shaken from his reverie by Walter.

'Bella, I'm so sorry. I never would have left you there if I knew that you were still alive. You saved all of our lives and we let them take you away from us.' I heard Edward shift his weight, I had given him the cliffs notes version of the story and I knew I would hear about it later.

It was then that they noticed Edward behind me 'Don't be ridiculous there's no way that you could have known. Stan, Walter this is my boyfriend Edward.'

'It's very nice to meet you both.' He said and they both shook his hand, looking slightly uncomfortable, apparently my disguise was a little bit more believable.

'Come in! Come in! I don't want to leave you standing in the doorway.' Stan said ushering us inside.

Their apartment was much nicer than I had expected, it was very homey. They lead us into the living room offering all manner of beverage and food item but of course we declined everything. I couldn't help but notice the children's toys and furniture strewn around the living area and I felt a sharp pain in my chest.

'As glad as I am to see you Bella, what brings you back here?' Stan asked.

'I heard about Zoey.' I said quietly, both of their faces fell. 'Can you tell me what happened?'

They told me the story that I already knew. Weird things were happening around Zoey so Tuesday (who had since revealed her real name to be Elisa) took her to the DPA to see if they could help and from there they took Zoey away. I let them tell their story even though I knew it all too well since it had happened to me.

Since then Elisa had spiralled downwards into depression and she had begun drinking way past excess. She had become an alcoholic, sleeping during the day and drowning her depression in booze at night. No matter what they said they couldn't pull her out of it, she was currently asleep in her bedroom.

'Where's Jimmy?' I asked them.

'He works at a local bar picking up odd shifts. That's what we have all been doing; working any odd jobs we can find to make ends meet. We were doing fine; we were doing great living as a family… until they took Zoey.' Stan said.

'That's why I'm here, I came here to get Zoey and bring her back home.' I said.

'What?' Stan said looking confused.

'How do you plan on doing that?' Walter asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

'I was never honest with you. You all knew something was different about me which was how I got you all out of the fire and broke into the grocery store to get supplies for the birth. I am different in the same way that Zoey is different, we are actually strikingly similar. Zoey and I both have connections with the spirit world which is why so many strange things happen around her.

'When I was born I was ripped from my mother and raised in the DPA- the same place that they are keeping Zoey. They raised me to be a weapon and a tool for them to use whenever they had need of me. They're the ones that told you I was dead before bringing me back there.

'It was a horrible upbringing, and there is no way in _hell_ that I will let them have her.' I explained.

'But _how_ will you get her out, we can't let you get hurt.' Walter asked again, shocked by the new information.

'Don't worry about me, I'll be fine, she will be fine and we will get her back. But the issue isn't with what I have to do; it's with what you guys have to do.' I said.

'What do you mean Bella?' Walter asked.

'We'll do anything.' Stan said voice full of certainty.

I nodded 'Good, because the whole plan hinges on you all doing exactly what I ask.'

'Anything, Bella.' Walter said.

'The problem that we face is not that I won't be able to get her out, it's that once she is missing they are immediately going to come here looking for her. We have everything arranged to get the four of you out of here before I go in to get you. You all need to be long gone by the time I go in there, and I'm sorry, but if you and Zoey are going to be safe you can't come back.'

'Bella, we can't leave you to get her while we run away.' Stan said.

'Yes you can, and if you want her back then you have to. I'm sorry it's the only way.' I said sadly.

'Screw this town; it never did anything for us anyways.' Walter said and I couldn't help but smile, forever the optimist.

Stan however looked apprehensive. I knew that this was the city that he had lived in with his wife Nancy before she passed away.

'I'm offering you a fresh start Stan, it's what Nancy wanted for you- you know that.' I said to him compassionately.

He couldn't help the small smile that came on his face 'You remember her name.' he said matter-of-factly.

'Of course, I remember everything- about _all_ of you. I know why you don't want to go Stan but it's also the reason that you _need_ to go.' I told him.

'You're right. Of course you're right.' I could tell he was trying to convince himself. 'When do we go?'

'As soon as possible, as soon as we get Jimmy and Tues- I mean, _Elisa_ on board. Sorry I've been thinking of her as Tuesday for years, that's going to take some getting used to.' I said.

'Where are we going?' Stan asked suddenly realizing that I hadn't told them yet.

'Don't freak out, it's not as bad as it sounds- we're moving to Alaska.' I said bracing for their reactions.

'Alaska? Why Alaska?' Walter asked.

'It's pretty much the last place that they will look for you and Edward's family has connections in Alaska.' I said.

'Wait… you said _we._ Are you coming with us?' Stan asked me.

I smiled 'Zoey still needs to be helped through what she's going through. It's going to get much worse before it gets better and she will need someone there who knows how to help as she grows up.'

Edward and I had already discussed this and moving to Alaska for a few years was our best choice. Everyone in Forks thought I was dead (they had posted the obituary) and at least Denali was even more remote than Forks. Also there was no way that I was leaving Zoey to grow up as I did- with people who didn't have a clue what I was going through.

'Really?' Stan asked smiling, 'You're going to come with us?'

'Of course.' I laughed 'We've got a lot of catching up to do.'

oOo

I slowly walked into the dark room that Elisa had shared with her baby, the room that now reeked of alcohol. She was laying on her left side facing the wall- away from me.

I sat on the edge of her bed behind her back and gently stroked her arm calling to her. It took a little bit for the fog to lift and for her to wake up. As she did she rolled onto her back and drowsily looked up at me. 'Bella?' she said quizzically.

'Yeah.' I said quietly 'Yeah Elisa it's me.'

'But… I thought you were dead.' She said.

'I know, I'm sorry but I'm okay.' I said to her. 'What do you say we get Zoey back?' I said, smiling.

She looked at me for a few seconds, glassy eyes glistening before she burst into tears and I pulled her up into sitting and embraced her, the burning in my throat flared up as I felt and heard the pumping of blood in her body. I rubbed her back and soothed her as she sobbed for ten minutes before she began to settle down.

'I'm so sorry Elisa, I had no idea what had happened. I promise you that I will get her back but I need you to do something for me.' I said.

She pulled back from me and looked at me 'How?'

'We all have a part to play- including you. You have the most important part.' I said seriously.

She sat back and crossed her legs looking at me intently 'What? I'll do anything.'

'You need to get sober. You can't drink one more drop, do you hear me? You can't be there for Zoey the way that she is going to need you while you're drunk.' I told her sternly.

Her eyes welled up again 'Bella, I'm so sorry. You almost gave your life for us and this is how I repay you. I promise that I will be better.'

'Good. Elisa, listen; I know you know that something about me is different, and what's different about me is what is different about Zoey. I have no idea if I brought it out in Zoey or if it just happened like it did in me. If I did cause it I'm sorry, but there's no way to know, I didn't even know that this could happen more than once.' I tried to explain.

She looked confused 'Wait, what do you mean?'

I sighed 'I mean that raising Zoey isn't going to be easy, but I am going to be there to help you- ok?'

'You will?' she looked so hopeful.

'Of course, but you need to know that there's something that you have to do before I can get Zoey back.' I told her.

'I know,' she said 'I will get sober. I promise that I am done drinking.'

'I believe you, but that isn't what I'm talking about. You, Stan, Walter and Jimmy all need to leave, if I get Zoey, the first place that they are going to come looking is here. I have somewhere for you all to go, but you have to leave today- as soon as possible. You're going to have to leave a lot behind.' I explained.

'I'll do anything to get her back, I'll start packing.'

The three of them packed up their own things as I packed up Jimmy's who wasn't due home for a half an hour. I joined Edward back in the living room once I was done- well before the rest of them and he wrapped his arms around me.

'It seems that there is a lot about you that I don't know.' He said quietly as the members of the house packed up their meager belongings.

'I already told you that.' I said leaning back into him.

'Yes, but you didn't tell me that you lied as well.' He accused and I stiffened. 'Why didn't you tell me that you saved them?'

'I don't know… I didn't think it was important.' I said, extremely uncomfortable.

He laughed 'Of course you wouldn't think so.' He turned me around to face him 'You've always been incredible.' He said seriously, and I that it was me laughing.

'Far from it, they caught me at a time when I was able to do some good in the world in contrast to all of the hurt I had caused up until that point.' I told him.

'I don't believe that for a second.' He said.

'Yeah well, there's a lot about me that you don't know.' I said quoting him; it was then that we noticed that the distant footsteps were approaching the door to the apartment. I stiffened up immediately terrified that they had got here before I got them out.

'It's ok, it's just Jimmy. He got off of work early.' He soothed me.

'Stan.' I called and he poked his head out of his bedroom doorway. 'Jimmy is here, it's probably better that a dead girl doesn't answer the door.' I was referring to the fact that they had all assumed that I was dead and not the fact that I was _actually_ dead but Edward snorted at the mistake and I smacked him to shut him up.

I stood just off to the left side of the door as Stan stopped Jimmy from coming in and explained to him not to freak out- that I was there. Jimmy had a lot of drug issues in the past where he would hallucinate some pretty scary stuff, and he didn't want those memories to resurface.

Once Stan backed up and let Jimmy in, he still had the same chin length blonde hair and piercing blue eyes that I remembered. I walked over into his eye line and his reaction was exactly the same as the rest of theirs- pure shock and disbelief. I went through the same conversation with him that I did with the rest of them and after another reunion hug he agreed to leave just like the rest of them did.

'Guys I need to talk to you for a second.' I called to them and they all came back into the living room.

'There is a van waiting outside for you, you need to be gone within the hour. They're going to take you to a private plane so don't worry about passports or ID; no one will be able to trace you. There is one more person I have to get on that plane so I need to leave you all now. I promise that I will see you all soon and I will have Zoey with me safe and sound.' I promised them.

'Who else do you need to get Bella?' Elisa asked.

'I'll explain later, just know that he is a friend and he can help.' After saying goodbye to them all and assuring them I would see them soon, Edward and I left.

'Let's go get Cole.' I said to him.

 _Thanks for reading! :)_


	17. Chapter 17

By the time we got to Cole's house the venom in my eyes had dissolved the contacts; luckily Edward had planned for that and handed me another pair. The anxiety that I had felt outside of Stan, Walter, Jimmy and Elisa's apartment came rearing back, but this time it was worse.

'How are we going to explain the fact that he knew that I was dying just a few weeks ago? I'm pretty sure he figured out that I must have been bald as well.' I asked Edward.

'We don't. He's a smart guy- he will obviously realize something is up. We just have to tell him that he needs to accept that you're better without asking too many questions.' Edward said.

'Yeah, I'm sure that will go over well…' I said dubiously.

It was early evening as we walked past his freshly manicured lawn to his front door where we knocked and waited. When he opened the door he had the same look of shock on his face that the others had except he also had a look of confusion on his face.

'Bella?' he asked as if he wasn't sure if it was me or not. He studied me for a few moments before I spoke.

'Yeah Cole, it's me.' I said gently, smiling at him, I could see the confusion in his face deepen at hearing my voice- it was one of the many things that changed when I turned.

'You look so…' he trailed off, lost for words.

'I know, I look different. Don't worry- I'm much better.' I tried to soothe him.

'I don't understand…' He nearly whispered, I had never seen him so lost for words.

'I know and I'm sorry I can't really answer your questions. All that I can tell you is that I'm healthy and happy. Do you trust me?' I asked, giving him the same face that I used to use to manipulate him as a child.

'Of course I do, but Bella…' He didn't want to drop it, and really I didn't blame him.

'Cole, please. Just trust me.' He stared at me hard for another minute before he nodded curtly; I knew he wasn't dropping this for long but I would take what I could.

'I need to talk to you, can we come in?' I asked him.

'Of course.' He said realizing that we were still standing outside; in fact he seemed to notice Edward for the first time at me saying 'we'.

As I walked past him into his house he gave me a long hug and seemed unsettled at the coolness of my skin but didn't say anything. As Edward walked forward he said 'Hey Edward' and shook his hand allowing him into his house.

He brought us into the living room where we sat on the couch and he offered us a drink and of course we both refused.

'I can guess why you're both here.' I smiled sadly but let him continue. 'You're going to get Zoey out. I still don't understand your reaction exactly though. Do you know her mother?'

I nodded 'It's a long story but yes, when I ran away at 15 I stayed with her homeless mother and the three men that she was staying with. I actually delivered her baby, I don't know if this has anything to do with why Zoey is like me or not but either way- I'm responsible for her. I can't leave her there Cole.'

'That's a hell of a coincidence Bella, there has to be a connection there.' He said instantly interested.

'I agree. I've already been to their home and I've sent them away somewhere that the CIA and DPA can't find them. I will be joining them soon… I'm hoping you'll join us.' I said looking up at him through my eyelashes.

'Join you? You want me to leave my home?' he asked me, he looked skeptical.

'I know it's a lot to ask, Cole. I'm afraid to leave you here; they're going to know that I got the intel about Zoey from you. I can't have you get hurt because of me.' I explained.

'Bella, you can't take responsibility for my choices, if something were to happen to me it wouldn't be your fault.' He said dismissively.

'Either way, your life isn't up for grabs; I can't let anything happen to you. Besides, I need your help.' I admitted.

'With what?' he asked me cocking an eyebrow.

'You have more experience than anyone raising a little girl with a spirit tethered to her and I could really use the help. Her mother is unequipped to teach her to control herself and her entity, she needs _our_ help.' I told him and he was silent for a few moments lost in thought.

'What about my house and everything I have here?' he asked me.

'We can come back for your things later and sell your house at a later date but I don't think you could ever come back. I don't plan on leaving things at the DPA in a way that they will consider anyone associated with me a friend of theirs. It's going to be too dangerous for you here if they figure out that you helped me.' I said to him.

He nodded but stayed quiet, thinking. 'I'm sorry Cole, I know how much I'm asking and I know that I don't have the right to ask this of you.'

'Well…' he sat up straight, pulling his head from his hands 'I've already quit my job, I don't have a family other than you- I would be stupid not to leave. Of course I'll help Bella.' He was steeling himself to deal with his decision.

'Really?' I asked smiling.

'Really.' He smiled back.

'There's one thing- you need to leave as soon as possible. Preferably an hour ago. I have a plane waiting for you and everyone else is already on it.' I said.

'Where are we going?' he asked.

'I can't tell you yet, it's incredibly likely that your home has been bugged and we don't need to be followed.' I told him.

'That's fair, what do you need me to do?' he asked.

'Pack everything that you can't live without, but travel lightly. Also, on your way out our driver is going to take you to withdraw all of your money from the bank, you can't use credit or debit, they will be able to trace you.' I said.

'Your driver?' he asked 'I have a car.'

'A car that they know is yours; we have to leave it behind as well. I'm sorry Cole; I know I'm asking a lot.' I said guiltily.

He shook his head 'I understand, give me a few minutes to shove some things into a suitcase.'

15 minutes later Cole had his most prized possessions and things that he needed to function like clothes and toiletries shoved away in a suitcase and a duffel bag. The guilt was consuming me.

'Ok, I'm ready to go.' He said as he descended the stairs.

'There is a black car waiting out front for you he will take you to the bank and then to the place that we have the plane waiting. Zoey's family will be flying out with you and Edwards sister Alice will be waiting for you all when you land to take you to your new homes.' I told him.

'Bella, what are you going to do?' he asked warily.

'I'm going to get Zoey back, and we're going to make it as difficult as possible for them to rebuild their condenser.' I told him.

'We?' he asked looking at Edward who smiled.

'I will be helping her Cole.' Edward said, we had discussed this beforehand knowing that he would ask.

'How? You will very likely be going up against armed soldiers. They'll kill you.' He said, shocked.

'I'm not the only talented person in the world Cole, far from it. Edward can handle himself.' I told him cryptically, Edward and I had discussed what we would tell him and we decided against too much truth for the time being.

'Will you ever tell me what you mean by that?' he asked.

'Maybe one day.' I smiled when he didn't question me further.

The driver loaded Coles bags into the trunk and I we went to say goodbye to him. He pulled me into a long hug, I could sense the fear on him and I tried to make him relax. I could really use Jasper right now.

'Don't worry Cole, I'll promise we'll be fine. We will see you in a couple of days.' I pulled back and he kissed me on the forehead.

'Either intentionally or not, you had better not be lying to me. I'm really worried about you kid.' He said.

'I know you are, but you don't need to be. I promise that I will be fine.' I told him.

'You'd better keep her safe.' He said to Edward and Edward smiled.

'I promise, nothing will happen to her.' Edward said genuinely.

Cole sighed, 'Okay, I guess this is it then.'

I hugged him again briefly 'I love you and I promise that I will be ok. I will see you soon.'

With that he got into the car, by now the sun was starting to approach the skyline it would be dark within the hour. He rolled down the window after he sat in the passenger seat.

'I'm waiting until I get the call that the plane has taken off before we do anything, try not to worry too much.' I told him.

'Please just stay safe, I don't know what I'll do if you get yourself killed.' Cole said to me.

'I'll be fine! I'll see you soon!' I told him as the driver began to drive away, all he could do was wave.

We waited for the call saying that the plane had taken off; this came just after 9pm. Our plan was to go to the DPA in the middle of the night; we were planning on 3am. Until then, we just had to wait. Before leaving for Virginia I had gorged on blood to limit the danger to my friends. With the upcoming violence that was sure to ensue I figured it would be a good idea to go hunting one more time before we went there.

The last thing we needed was for me to attack a human, especially where cameras could pick it up. We were also going to be spending a couple of days with a small human child and the last thing I wanted was to hurt her, so better safe than sorry.

'Do you mind hunting with me one more time before we go tonight?' I asked Edward who was lazily flipping through the channels on Cole's TV.

'Please.' He said, clearly bored. He turned off the TV and got up quickly. We left Cole's house, locking the door behind us. We would be the last people in this house for quite some time, granted that the CIA doesn't search it which is quite likely.

We ran off into the forest on the edge of town together in search of animals to hunt. We quickly picked up the scent of what my limited experience told me was probably deer. Before we found the herd though we came across another scent that appeared to be chasing the deer, it smelled canine- wolves?

After another minute of following the two scents we came upon a pack of coyotes hunting an oblivious herd of white-tailed deer. Edward and I pounced immediately both taking down a coyote before chasing the pack down again and taking another one each. With what little hunger we had satiated we decided to go and watch the DPA, Aiden would go in and scout out the building for us.

We camped out about a half mile out while Aiden roamed the facility. I watched through him as I dictated everything that I was seeing back to Edward who held my hand, grounding me to my body. By 11 o'clock almost everyone had left the building, all that was left was a couple of scientists working late into the night, a few of which I recognized.

There were still about 30 security guards spread throughout the building in their various posts but they would be easy enough to avoid- this all seemed way too easy. Our plan was for Edward to run in too fast for the cameras to see and grab Zoey while I went in loud drawing all of the attention to me. Edward of course hated the idea but they still hadn't seen him and it didn't make sense to show his face now, if we were going on the run we would need one of us to be able to be seen in public.

And so he reluctantly agreed to keep Zoey safe as Aiden and I tore apart the DPA one last time. We weren't planning on letting them rebuild again and we were going to give it our best shot at disabling their ability to ever make another condenser.


	18. Chapter 18

We waited until 3am before we began our assault of the DPA, me entering through the main doors and Edward sneaking in through a side exit. Aiden lead Edward in and to where Zoey was being held while I began the distraction at the DPA entrance.

As I approached the large glass doors and windows that made up the entrance of the DPA I shattered all of the glass with my mind alone and then walked through the huge opening I had created. It amazed me how easy this now was. I forced myself to walk at a human pace and appear as human as possible so that no one would suspect anything else- that was my plan at least.

I approached the security guard at the desk who had screamed and thrown his arms over his head at the sudden explosion of glass. I pulled his clearance badge off of his desk from across the room and it flew into my hand.

'Leave.' The man stared at me dumbfounded for a few seconds unmoving. 'NOW!' I yelled at him as he scrambled to his feet and ran out the front door the sound of crunching glass followed him. I took his key card and used it on the elevator next to the desk.

The card said that this security guard only had level 3 clearance and I knew that where I needed to be was level 5 so my plan was to find someone on another level to steal their ID. I bypassed the first two levels and went straight to the third. This was the floor that I lived most of my life on and I knew it well. It was weird seeing it so deserted- I was never allowed out at this time of day.

Almost immediately after stepping foot on the floor the emergency alarm sounded- they either discovered that Zoey was gone (I could see Edward escaping with her now through Aiden) or they discovered the mess at the front door. Good.

I walked to the apartment that I had been kept in- that they were keeping Zoey in and found two middle aged scientists frantically searching the rooms. I knew them from my time here- their names were Kevin and Sarah. They both had been at the DPA for years; they had helped with raising and experimenting on me. They both froze when I slowly walked in the room and stood in the doorway.

'How could you do this to someone else?' my voice was low and menacing, neither said a word, they just stared at me with wide eyes.

'Me, I get. I was the first, you guys didn't really know what to expect. You didn't know the moral implications or how what you did to me would affect me. But then you learned, you watched my miserable life with your own eyes, you watched how I was used and experimented on and forced to do things no young girl should ever have to do.' I slowly walked closer to them and they slowly backed away.

'You guys are smart, you're scientists! Of course you learned that these experiments were unethical, inhumane. No way would you ever repeat your mistakes- except that you _did._ '

As I talked the emergency lights flashed all around us and the sirens blared deafeningly. I could sense Aiden headed back towards me.

Sarah and Kevin looked terrified; I guessed by my words but also by the way I must have looked under the flashing lights.

'You're both going to leave, you're going to quit and leave town. If I find out that either of you came back to work here or that you are doing something similar I will find out and I will _kill you._ Now LEAVE.' In order to leave the apartment they had to get past me and they both edged around me slowly. As they passed me I grabbed Sarah's ID badge and pulled it off of her lab coat. As I did that Sarah screamed and they both bolted down the hall away from me.

 _They're coming._ Aiden said to me as he came back in through the front of the building headed towards me.

 _Good._ I replied. _Did you get them both out?_ I asked and he showed me his memory of Edward loading Zoey into the car seat we had borrowed from Elisa and taking off in the rental car.

I went and scanned the ID card in the elevator- this one would take me up to the fourth floor but I decided to go to the basement instead- to the condenser.

As I stepped out of the elevator I paused listening past the screaming siren to the sound of boots thudding against the concrete above me- _quick response time._ I said to Aiden as he appeared at my side a bright blue spectre. It was amazing that I could never see him before I turned; he was the most amazing and brilliant thing that I had ever seen.

I took off running at a human pace towards where they kept the condenser; I didn't pass any humans on my way there. The condenser was well under development but not yet operational. _They're going to keep rebuilding; we're going to keep destroying. Help me Aiden._ I said to him.

I wanted nothing more than to use my hands, my strong body to rip the metal construction apart but I knew everything that I did was being captured on camera and so I let Aiden tear the construction to the ground while I headed back upstairs to face what I assumed was an army waiting for me.

As I ascended out of the elevator I was greeted by 15 armed SWAT members pointing their automatic rifles at me. I calmly took a few steps out of the elevators.

'STOP!' One of the soldiers screamed at me, I took another step before complying.

I stood there and waited for one of them to speak 'On your knees!' one of the soldiers ordered.

'That's not going to happen.' I told him 'What is going to happen is that you're going to lower your weapons and you're going to bring me General McGrath.'

One of the soldiers chuckled before being silenced by another, this guy apparently didn't know me. The rest of them seemed to understand who I was.

'We can't do that Bella; we don't want to hurt you. Please come with us.' I recognized that voice immediately.

'Vince?' Vince was a soldier that I had fought alongside many times- I had called him my friend at a certain point in my life.

'Yeah kid. Please don't make me hurt you; it's the last thing I want.' He said, pleading with me. His face was obscured by his mask, I still couldn't see him.

'Don't worry Vince, you won't hurt me. I'm going to ask one more time though; I want to speak to General McGrath.'

'Get on your knees!' another soldier yelled.

'I don't think you understand.' I said and I telekinetically pulled all of their rifles from their hands throwing them behind me into the elevator that I had been holding open. Aiden joined me at this point.

'You're going to bring me General McGrath or you're all going to die.' I said without any inflection.

General McGrath was the director of the CIA and the man who was responsible for overseeing and directing the DPA's research into the Infraworld. It was his idea to weaponize entities and to start the program that saw me experimented on and used as a weapon for so many years.

It was his idea to take on a second child after I was a spectacular failure. It was also General McGrath who had tried to kill me last year by poisoning me, the very poison that very likely caused my cancer and killed my human body. I had more than a few scores to settle with the man.

Aiden drifted down the hall peering into the passing rooms before finding the very man I was looking for hiding beside the door pistol clutched in his hands. There was an explosion of glass and drywall dust as Aiden threw McGrath through the wall sending him skidding into the hall.

'Nice of you to join us General.' I said stepping through the line of men who parted more than willingly as I walked by. I also closed the elevator behind us before they could pick their guns up. He raised his gun up to fire it at me but as he did Aiden knocked it aside and the shot went wide into the ceiling- bits of drywall rained down.

I looked down at the man for a moment before turned back to the soldiers behind me and gave them the same offer I gave the scientists. 'Leave now, resign and don't ever work with the DPA or CIA again. I see any of you again and you're dead.' I ripped all of their helmets off at once. 'Now I know what you all look like and trust me- I won't forget.'

I looked straight into Vince's sad eyes. 'Go.' I said more gently to him. They all took off down the hallway that led to the front door leaving me alone with Aiden and McGrath. By the time I turned around McGrath was standing in the hallway behind me glaring at me defiantly.

'So is this your big plan?' McGrath asked, sneering at me 'You're just going to come and trash the building once a year?'

'No. I took Zoey.' I said to him smiling.

'What?' he asked shocked.

'Oh come on. Did you really think that I would let you do to another little girl what you did to me?'

He was angry now 'You'll never be anything more than a failed experiment, I should have killed you when I had the chance like I did your mother.'

Aiden bristled but I let it roll off of me 'Maybe so, but at least I have a chance to become someone else. You on the other hand will forever be remembered as a sick masochistic asshole who nobody could ever love. You're going to die today and no one will miss you.'

'Who is going to kill me- you? I forgot that you only killed innocent people.' He said smirking at me.

'I would make an exception for you but actually it's Aiden who will have the pleasure of ending your life, he owes you quite a few.' I said smiling at him and he blanched.

As a last ditch attempt to save his life I watched him reach around himself and pull out a gun. He thought he was moving quickly but for me he moved so slowly I watched his every move and decided to let him. Selfishly I wanted him to witness that he could never hurt me again, I wanted him to feel the fear from that.

He pulled the gun up and aimed it level with my chest 'He kills me, I kill you.' His eyes darted all around as if looking for Aiden.

I laughed at him and started walking forwards until the gun was pressed against my heart 'Do it.' I said and almost immediately he pulled the trigger, the gun exploding across my chest. The bullet tore a path through my jacket and shirt before crumpling against my impenetrable skin and falling down through my shirt before clattering against the concrete floor.

McGrath stared at me in wide eyed terror for a moment before saying 'You're one of them.'

This took me aback, 'One of who?'

 _Microphones everywhere, be careful._ Aiden warned.

'You did die, we heard correctly… but you were turned.' he said in an almost whisper as if he was putting together pieces of a truly confounding puzzle.

I smirked at him and said 'You know more than I gave you credit for. Too much. This is where we must part ways, sorry McGrath.' I backed up letting Aiden move in.

'No please! I can help you!' he said panicked backing up down the hallway.

I glared at him 'I'm done with your brand of help. See you in the Infraworld McGrath.'

He turned and ran down the hallway after he realized that I wasn't going to let him live. Luckily for him Aiden was in a generous mood and simply reached into his chest and stopped his heart, finally ending his miserable horrible life.

 _Go destroy the online files, destroy everything and anything that you find. I'm going to destroy everything physical that I can find that will help them do this again._ I said to Aiden. Aiden took off upstairs ahead of me as I grabbed the badge off of McGrath and headed back to the elevators, this time heading up to the 5th floor.

I met Aiden upstairs who was busy with the computer systems; he was corrupting them as much as he could. I could hear dozens of people outside the building trying to figure out a plan of attack but no one was coming in as of yet. I went from office to office using the matches I brought and burning every piece of paper and file that I found pulling the fire alarm along the way.

I could feel and hear the fire burning behind me as we reached the end of the hall. A primitive part of my brain felt a rush a fear knowing that fire was one of the only things that could kill me, I silenced it. I wouldn't be here long enough.

I decided to go floor by floor to look for anything else important to get rid of or people to evacuate and Aiden headed back to the basement to eliminate any remnants of the condenser they were building. I didn't find anything or anyone out of place, the alarms had done their job. As I reached the first floor Aiden called me to come to him, he was still down in the basement and he showed me how to get to where he was.

I met him in the basement a few agonizingly slow minutes later- walking at human speed sucked. When I got to where he was I saw that he had called me to an underground office with a metal desk, 3 computer monitors, a couple of file cabinets and a small mini fridge. In the centre of the floor was a serious metal hatch, it looked like one that would open up to a bomb cellar.

 _What's in there?_ I asked him in my mind.

 _Vampire._ He told me and I froze.


End file.
